Prohibited and Restricted Items

This page lists what may not be sold on our marketplace, and what may be sold only with the right documentation. It applies to every vendor, in every country we operate in.

Some of these rules exist because the law requires them. Others exist because we sell living trees, and a single careless listing can move a pest into a region that has never had it. Read the restricted section as carefully as the prohibited one — most vendor suspensions come from paperwork that was never obtained, not from deliberate wrongdoing.

Protected and regulated species

You may not list any species protected under CITES without valid permits covering both export and import for the specific transaction.

This catches more bonsai material than most vendors expect. Whole plant families are listed, including all cycads, and several conifers and succulents commonly grown as bonsai or accent plants appear on Appendix II. Listing status also changes between CITES conferences.

  • Check the current CITES checklist for the botanical name before you list, not the common name
  • Artificially propagated nursery stock of a listed species still requires documentation — propagation does not exempt it
  • Permits are transaction-specific. A permit from a previous shipment does not cover a new sale
  • Your national plant health authority issues these, and lead times are usually weeks, not days

If you are unsure whether a species is listed, ask us before listing. We would rather check with you than remove the listing later.

Illegally collected material

Yamadori is welcome on this marketplace. Illegally collected yamadori is not.

  • Material collected without the landowner’s permission
  • Material collected from national parks, nature reserves, protected landscapes, or any area where collection is restricted by law
  • Material collected in breach of a permit’s conditions, including season, quantity, or species limits
  • Material whose origin you cannot account for, including stock bought from a third party with no provenance

We may ask you to evidence permission for collected material. Keep written permission and permits for as long as you hold the tree. “I don’t remember where it came from” is treated as a failed check.

Invasive species

You may not ship a species into a market where it is classed as invasive, regulated, or prohibited — even where it is legal and unremarkable in your own country.

Invasive lists are national and they change. Several species widely grown as bonsai are restricted in particular regions, and a plant that is nursery stock at home can be a notifiable problem two borders away.

  • Check the destination country’s list before accepting an international order
  • Set shipping exclusions on listings rather than cancelling orders after the fact
  • Where a species is restricted in only part of a country, exclude that region explicitly in the listing

Pests, disease, and plant health

Knowingly listing or shipping infested or diseased material is a immediate removal offence, not a warning.

  • Trees carrying live scale, mite, root aphid, borer, or nematode infestation
  • Material showing symptoms of any notifiable disease in your jurisdiction
  • Trees under an active quarantine or movement restriction
  • Material recently treated with a systemic pesticide, unless the treatment and date are disclosed in the listing

If you discover a problem after a sale, cancel the order and tell the buyer why. Cancelling for plant health reasons will never count against you.

Soil, substrate, and growing media

Many countries prohibit the import of soil and of plants shipped in soil, regardless of the plant itself.

  • Do not list field soil, garden compost, or used substrate for international sale
  • Where the destination requires bare-root shipping, list the tree as bare root and price it accordingly
  • Unused inorganic media such as akadama, pumice, and lava are generally acceptable, but confirm the destination’s rules before shipping
  • Moss, lichen, and accent plantings collected from the wild follow the same rules as collected trees

Misrepresented goods

The following are prohibited because they deceive the buyer, whatever the seller’s intent:

  • Pots presented as the work of a named potter without provenance, or bearing a copied chop mark
  • Counterfeit tools sold under a maker’s name
  • Nursery stock described as trained or refined bonsai
  • Recently collected material sold as an established tree
  • Preserved, artificial, or dyed trees listed without stating clearly that they are not living
  • Undisclosed grafts on species where graft quality materially affects value
  • Deadwood treated with paint or filler, presented as natural
  • Photographs of a different specimen than the one being sold

Disclosure resolves nearly all of these. A grafted tree, a restored pot, or a piece of raw stock can all be sold honestly. The prohibition is on the silence, not the tree.

Chemicals and other goods

Also prohibited across the marketplace:

  • Pesticides, fungicides, and growth regulators not approved for sale to consumers in the destination market
  • Seeds or propagation material where the destination requires a permit you do not hold
  • Wildlife products, including protected wood species used for stands and display boards
  • Stolen goods, or goods you cannot demonstrate ownership of
  • Any item whose sale is prohibited by law in the buyer’s or seller’s country

Restricted — allowed with documentation

These are not banned. They require paperwork before the listing goes live, and we may ask to see it.

  • CITES Appendix II material — permits for the specific export and import
  • International shipments of live plants — a phytosanitary certificate where the destination requires one
  • Legally collected yamadori — written landowner permission or a collection permit
  • Imported stock resold within your country — import documentation showing lawful entry

Upload documentation to your vendor dashboard rather than attaching it to individual orders. It speeds up review and means you only do it once per batch.

Reporting a listing

If you see a listing you believe breaches this policy, report it from the listing page or contact vendor support. Reports are reviewed by a person, and we do not disclose who reported a listing.

Vendors reporting competitors in bad faith will be treated as breaching this policy themselves.

Consequences

Listings that breach this page are removed. Depending on severity we may also suspend the shop, hold payouts pending resolution of open orders, or close the account permanently.

Protected species without permits, illegally collected material, knowingly shipping diseased stock, and counterfeit goods carry no warning step.

Where we are legally required to report a matter to a plant health or wildlife authority, we will.

Last updated: September 2026