Cycads – the world’s oldest seed plants, sometimes referred to as ‘living fossils’ – are one of the most endangered plant groups on earth. The ever-growing demand is often driven by wealthy plant collectors interested in planting rare cycads in their gardens – some of whom may misconceive their actions as ‘protecting’ these plants rather than contributing to their endangerment. While there is a legal market for cultivated cycad varieties, rare cycads – particularly those that are scarce in the wild and thus under threat – remain a desirable, expensive status symbol. Some specimens have sold for millions of pounds each. Notably, every single cycad confiscated by police in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa was on the IUCN Red List, indicating a clear demand for endangered species. For a cycad of around a metre high, a collector could pay up to US$100,000. However, the risks associated with the illegal trade in plants tend to be comparatively low, with less media attention and protection from armed rangers, attracting dedicated ‘cycad syndicates’ to the illicit trade. The profit margins made by such criminals are lucrative, they may pay a local villager less than US$6 to extract a plant from the wild, subsequently selling it for thousands of dollars.