You gotta love plant people! I know a Filipina woman whose mom shoved seeds or keikis of her favorite tobacco down her pants and brought them to Hawaii from the Philippines. When I moved to Thailand, I packed two seedlings of lignum vitae ( Guaiacum officinale) and a wild-collected New Guinea banana in my suitcase. Lost the banana, sadly, but the lignum vitae are thriving. LV is CITES Red Listed, but I collected my seedlings from under a plant in a botanical garden, where, eventually, the grounds crew would have raked them up and destroyed them. Sent two other plants to a friend in California; proud of myself! Plant people like this are usually happy to give you cuttings, seeds, or pups at no charge—at least that's my experience. There is a notably stingy, egotistical member of the International Palm Society who won't give anybody anything because he wants to be the only one to have certain palms. He is a prominent exception.
-kb