The Orchid Thief

Susan Orlean

One of Webster's imitators defines obsession as “the state of being beset or actuated by the devil or an evil spirit; compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or unwanted feeling or emotion, often with symptoms of anxiety; a compulsive, often unreasonable, idea or emotion causing such preoccupation”. Ms. Orlean informs us “The Orchidaceae is a large, ancient family of perennial plants…There are thirty thousand known orchid species, and there may be thousands more that haven't yet been discovered…Humans have created another hundred thousand hybrids by cross-fertilizing one species with another or by crossing different hybrids to one another in plant-breeding labs.” John Laroche was a breeder and collector of wild orchids, the flower that was his obsession. Ms. Orlean first meets Mr. Laroche in a Florida courtroom, where he is being tried for illegally removing 200 ghost orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, a south Florida swamp. When called to testify, he starts “Well, your honor I am a horticultural consultant. I've been a professional horticulturist for about twelve years and I've owned a plant nursery with a number of plants of great commercial and ethnobiological value. I have very extensive experience with the asexual micropropagation of orchids under aseptic cultures. Frankly, Your Honor, I'm probably the smartest person I know”. In the skilled hands of Ms. Orlean, Laroche is portrayed as a reluctant yet likeable guide to the world of the orchid, breeding, shows, locating wild orchids – and theft from sanctuaries or from other growers. Orchids as obsession? It takes seven years from planting a seed for an orchid to bloom. Developing a popular new strain of orchids give a breeder a seven monopoly – and the opportunity to get rich in the interim. A rare orchid can sell for five, or even six, figures. Ms. Orlean also takes us down earlier paths – visiting some of the earlier, Victorian collecting expeditions on the Orinoco River, in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Madagascar. Collectors sent out by the major growers and rich owners often brought back thousands of flowers – if they came back. She also guides us through South Florida history, including the land scam that eventually became the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, and how Florida has become, due to climate, environment and happenstance, the largest US home for wild and raised orchids. This book is lush with detail yet easily accessible for the general reader. Even if orchids are not your obsession, this book will give the reader an interesting insight into the history of obsession with these flowers – and the history of one little corner of Florida.