NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK ? THE BASIS FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION DIRECTED BY SPIKE JONZE AND STARRING NICOLAS CAGE AND MERYL STREEP

The "eccentric, illuminating, [and] hilarious" (New York Daily News) true story of beauty and obsession in the swamps of Florida and the impassioned individuals who risk everything for the ultimate prize: a rare ghost orchid

"Fascinating... an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing." -- Los Angeles Times

Meet John Laroche, a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive renegade plant dealer. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole men were arrested with rare ghost orchids -- Polyrrhiza lindenii -- they had stolen from a wild swamp in South Florida. Laroche had planned to clone the endangered orchids and sell them for a small fortune to impassioned buyers.

In The Orchid Thief, acclaimed journalist Susan Orlean follows 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. This unforgettable tour of America's strange flower-selling subculture becomes even more bizarre as Orlean details how the head of a famous Seminole chief came to be displayed in the front window of a local pharmacy, how seven hundred iguanas were smuggled into Florida, and the case of the only known extraterrestrial plant crime.

A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is a wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession.

• We started tracking this book on April 8, 2011.
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• Science & MathBiological SciencesPlantsFlowers
• Crafts, Hobbies & HomeGardening & HorticultureFlowersOrchids

• Publication Date: July 20, 2011
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 370 Pages
• File Size: 27 KB