Aussies ‘too hasty’ in destroying rare flower

SYDNEY: Australian quarantine officials have acknowledged that they reacted a bit too hastily when they destroyed a rare, centuries-old collection of plants from France due to paperwork problems. The Museum of Natural History in Paris sent the flowering plant specimens to a research centre in Australia’s Queensland state. When the plants arrived in Australia in January, officials determined that the accompanying paperwork failed to comply with the country’s notoriously strict quarantine rules.