The Orchid Thief is non-fiction book by American journalist Susan Orlean based on investigate the story of John Laroche, an eccentric plant dealer who had been arrested along with a crew of Seminoles for poaching rare orchids out of the South Florida swamp.
Laroche had planned to clone the orchids and then sell them for a small fortune to impassioned collectors. After he was caught in the act, Laroche set off one of the oddest legal controversies in recent memory, which brought together environmentalists, Native American activists, and devoted orchid collectors. The result is a tale that is strange, compelling, and hilarious.
"New Yorker writer Susan Orlean followed Laroche through swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida's orchid collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, fanatics, and smugglers whose obsession with plants is all-consuming. Along the way, Orlean learned the history of orchid collecting, discovered an odd pattern of plant crimes in Florida, and spend time with Laroche's partners, a tribe of Seminole Indians who are still at war with United States.
Ultimately, Susan Orlean's book is about passion itself, and the amazing lengths to which people will go to gratify it.
"The Orchid Thief is a lesson in the dark, dangerous, sometimes hilarious nature of obsession- any obsession. You sometimes don't want to read on, but find you can't help it"
Anita Manning, USA Today
"....her orchid story turns out to be distinctly 'something more'. Getting to know Mr.Laroche allows her to explore multiple subjects: orchids, Seminole history, the ecology of the Fakahatchee Strand, the fascination of Florida to con men....All that she writes here fits together because it is grounded in her personal experience...acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found."
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
"......Orchids have adapted to almost every environment on earth. They can be mutated, crossbred, and cloned. They can take the form of complex architectural structures or of garish, glamorous, luscious flowers. Not surprisingly, orchids have all sorts of sexual associations; few other flowers are as plainly erotic in appearance or effect. Even other creatures find orchids alluring. Some orchids are shaped exactly like the insect that pollinates them; the insect is drawn inside thinking it has found mate......."
Orchid Fever by Susan Orlean, The New Yourker, January 23, 1995
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCx6GjD8d4
(text and video: www.susanorlean.com/books/the-orchid-thief.html
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