Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.

The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Laroche sums up the obsession that drives him and so many others: I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something--I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it. Even Orlean--so leery of orchid fever that she immediately gives away any plant that's pressed upon her by the growers in Laroche's circle--develops a desire to see a ghost orchid blooming and makes several ultimately unsuccessful treks into the Fakahatchee. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. --Barrie Trinkle


From Publishers Weekly
"Folding virtue and criminality around profit are [John] Laroche's specialty," Orlean writes of the oddly likable felon who's the subject of her latest book. But what could be virtuous about poaching endangered orchids, which?not insignificantly?are worth a small fortune? If exotic flowers were cloned, everyone could afford them, Laroche would say. It's just such "amoral morality" that compels New Yorker staff writer Orlean (Saturday Night) to relocate to Naples, Fla., in order to dig into an orchid-collecting subculture as rarefied as its object of desire. Orlean spends two years attempting to place maverick Laroche in the rigid strata of orchid society, the heart of which is located in Florida. The milieu includes "Palm Beach plant lovers" and international stars such as Bob Fuchs, a commercial breeder whose family has been in the business for three generations. Laroche, on the other hand, is a self-taught horticulturist, yet one who has enough expertise to convince the nearby Seminole Indians to hire him as plant manager for their nursery. With the promise of big profits, he launches a plan to reproduce the "ghost" orchid, using samples stolen from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, leading to his arrest. Though she fills in a brief history of the $10-billion trade, Orlean's account of her orchid-land explorations, which include wading through a swamp in hope of spotting a ghost orchid (she doesn't see one) is not so much an expose as a meandering survey of the peccadilloes of the local orchid breeders. Clearly Orlean is most intrigued by autodidact Laroche, not the world he temporarily inhabits, which unfortunately makes for a slim, if engaging, volume. Author tour. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The thief in question and offbeat genesis for New Yorker writer Orlean's book is ever-quotable eccentric John Laroche, whose craving for the rare orchid eventually lands him and three Indian accomplices in a Florida courtroom--and allows Orlean to write her appreciative and lyrically funny profile of obsession and Florida. (LJ 1/99) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Ted Conover
It shows her gifts in full bloom, as well as the challenges, even for such a talented journalist, of writing at this length.


The Wall Street Journal, Frances Taliaferro
Ms. Orlean, an intrepid sociologist among the orchid fanatics, is also a poetic observer of the Fakahatchee swamp. There's an offhand brilliance in her accounts of its weird beauty and discomforts. But the most compelling sections of this fascinating book are those that deal with the orchids themselves...


The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
This is what Ms. Orlean's portrait of her sometimes sad-making orchid thief allows the reader to discover: acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found. A paper ball that blooms into orchids.


From AudioFile
Orlean left New York City for the swamps of Florida--on the trail of a story about plant poaching. She got it and much more. Listening to Anna Fields's low-pitched, earnest delivery, we learn about the poacher, John Laroche; his Seminole friends; the orchid-grower subculture; botany and booty; and Florida history. And the learning is fun, thanks to writing and narration that carry one along from an explanation of orchid-cloning to a Palm Beach cocktail party for orchid lovers to a final search for the elusive ghost orchid in the Fakahatchee Strand. The Latin botanical names pose no problem for Fields; she is equally successful at conveying the author's enthusiasm for her subject and for characters like Savilla Quick or Chief Billy. THIEF can only benefit from ADAPTATION, a recent movie about the making of a filmversion of the book. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
Expanded from a New Yorker article, this long-winded if well-informed tale has less to do with John Laroche, the ``thief,'' than it does with our authors desire to craft a comprehensive natural and social history of what the Victorians called ``orchidelirium.'' Orlean (Saturday Night, 1990) piles anecdote upon detail upon anecdoteand keeps on piling them. Laroche, who managed a plant nursery and orchid propagation laboratory for the Seminole tribe of Hollywood, Fla., was arrested, along with three tribesmen, in 1994 for stealing rare orchidsendangered speciesfrom the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. He had intended to clone the rarer ones (in particular, the so-called ``ghost orchid'') and sell them on the black market. Always a schemer and an eccentric hobbyist (old mirrors, turtles, and Ice Age fossils all fascinated him), Laroche figured he'd make millions. Found guilty, he was fined and banned from the Fakahatchee; the Seminoles, ostensibly exempt under the ``Florida Indian'' statute concerning the use of wildlife habitats, pled no contest. But Laroche's travails form only the framework for Orlean's accounts of famous and infamous orchid smugglers, hunters, and growers, and for her analyses of the mania for ``the most compelling and maddening of all collectible living things.'' She traces the orchid's arrival in the US to 1838, when James Boott of London sent a tropical orchid to his brother in Boston. That collection would eventually be housed at Harvard College. Orlean includes passages on legendary hunter Joseph Hooker, eventually director of the Royal Botanical Gardens; on collectors, such as the man who kept 3,000 rare orchids atop his Manhattan townhouse; and of other floral fanatics. Enticing for those smitten with the botanical history of this ``sexually suggestive'' flower. As for everyone else, theres little or no narrative drive to keep all the facts and mini-narratives flowing. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Like the orchid, a small thing of grandeur, a passion with a pedigree . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean's] gifts in full bloom."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A LESSON IN THE DARK, DANGEROUS, SOMETIMES HILARIOUS NATURE OF OBSESSION . . . YOU SOMETIMES DON'T WANT TO READ ON, BUT FIND YOU CAN'T HELP IT."
--USA Today

"IRRESISTIBLE . . . A brilliantly reported account of an illicit scheme to housebreak Florida's wild and endangered ghost orchid. Its central figure is John Laroche, the 'oddball ultimate' of a subculture whose members are so enthralled by orchids they 'pursue them like lovers.' "
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"FASCINATING . . . TALES OF THEFT, HATRED, GREED, JEALOUSY, MADNESS, AND BACK-STABBING . . . AN ENGROSSING JOURNEY."
--Los Angeles Times

"ARTFUL . . . In Ms. Orlean's skillful handling, her orchid story turns out to be distinctly 'something more.' . . . 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. . . . [Her] portrait of her sometimes sad-making orchid thief allows the reader to discover acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found."
--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
   The New York Times

"DELICIOUSLY WEIRD . . . COMPELLING."
--Detroit Free Press

"ZESTFUL . . . A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great. Here are visionary passions and fierce obsessions; heroic feats accomplished in exotic settings; outsize characters, entrepreneurs at the edge of the frontier, adventurers. . . . Orlean, an intrepid sociologist among the orchid fanatics, is also a poetic observer."
--The Wall Street Journal

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review

Stealing Beauty

A friend of mine recently summed up the lavish lifestyle of his new boss by revealing that "she employs an orchid consultant!" At the time, this seemed like the strange and decadent quirk of a Silicon Valley millionaire. However, after reading Susan Orlean's engaging and informative The Orchid Thief, I realize that my friend's boss is only one of many swept up by an intense devotion to the fragile blossom. As one besotted collector says, "You can join A.A. to quit drinking, but once you get into orchids you can't do anything to kick the habit."

What is it about this particular flower? Why can a single plant sell for more than $25,000? Why does Kew Gardens "display its orchids behind shatterproof glass, surrounded by surveillance cameras the way Tiffany's displays its jewels"?

Perhaps it's sex. Orlean describes orchids as the Brad Pitt of blossoms — "the sexiest flowers on earth!" As early as 1653, the British Herbal Guide warned that orchids are "hot and moist...under the dominion of Venus, and provoke lust exceedingly." Victorian women were forbidden to own the suggestive-looking treasures.

Or perhaps it's strength. Charles Darwin studied his "beloved orchids" as the pinnacle of evolutionary transformation.

Whatever the reason for their particular appeal, orchids, since their arrival in America in 1838, have come to symbolize elegance. Yet Orlean uncovers the rough drama behind the display of a flower associated with genteel wealth. She recounts tales of paid professional hunters who met their deaths throughdrowning,fever, and murder in locales like Bhamo, Myanmar, Panama, and Ecuador. In Florida, Orlean meets an amusing husband-and-wife poaching team who boast of their illegal pursuits: "We had more situations than Indiana Jones! Butch Cassidy is bullshit compared to the adventures we had!"

Florida, it turns out, is a hotbed for the shady side of orchid mania, and it is there that Orlean meets the "thief" of her title. John Laroche is a reckless iconoclast, a self-described "shrewd bastard," an orchid breeder who joyfully cooks seeds in his microwave. "Every time I'd make a new hybrid, it felt so cool...I felt a little like God!" After the wealthy Seminole tribe hires him to run a nursery, he concocts a grandiose get-rich scheme: get a rare "ghost" orchid from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve and clone it. The slight hitch is that, under Florida's Endangered Species law, it's illegal to collect wild orchids. The Seminoles, however, consider themselves at war with America; they call themselves the Unconquerable. Laroche enlists a few members to commit the actual theft, assuming Native Americans are exempt from government law. After stuffing 200 orchids into pillowcases, Laroche and his cohorts are arrested, and Laroche is convicted.

Orlean hopes Laroche will offer her insight into orchid mania, and he makes a lively, contrary companion as he guides her through Florida's often bizarre botanical subculture. In Palm Beach mansions and low-rent bungalows, at conferences, galas, and greenhouses, she is introduced to devotees who regale her with accounts of rivalries and discoveries, of lives both ruined and enlightened by a passion for "the most compelling and maddening of all collectible living things."

Determined not to succumb to the flower lust, Orlean does succumb. In the end, she makes a heart-of-darkness trek into the frightening Fakahatchee swamp. As Orlean reveals her own desire to find the elusive white flower, orchid mania resonates as a metaphor for any obsession. Fanatic behavior, she suggests, is really admirable optimism. "They sincerely loved something, trusted in the perfectibility of some living thing...were convinced that certain things were really worth dying for; believed that they could make their lives into whatever they dreamed."

Margot Towne is a freelance writer living in New York.
—Barnesandnoble.com

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The orchid thief in Susan Orlean's true story of beauty and obsession is John Laroche, a renegade plant dealer and sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing his front teeth and has the posture of al dente spaghetti. In 1994, Laroche and three Seminole Indians were arrested with rare orchids they had stolen from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's most extraordinary plants and trees. 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.

SYNOPSIS

John Laroche is a sharply handsome guy, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his teeth, has the posture of al dente spaghetti and the nervous intensity of someone who wins a lot of video games. He is also an orchid thief, who, along with three Seminole Indians, was arrested with rare orchids they had stolen out of a place called the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, a wild swamp in South Florida filled with extraordinary plants and trees, including some that don't grow anywhere else in the world.

One of those rare plants is called the ghost orchid, which John Laroche planned on cloning and then selling to impassioned collectors for a small fortune. New Yorker writer Susan Orlean was so fascinated by Laroche -- "the most moral, amoral man I've ever met," she writes -- that she followed him through the swamps and into the eccentric world of Florida's most obsessed plant collectors, a subculture of aristocrats, enthusiasts, and smugglers whose passion for plants is all-consuming. Along the way, Orlean learns the history of orchid collecting, discovers an unusual pattern of plant crimes in Florida, and spends time with Laroche's partners in crime, a tribe of Seminole Indians who are still at war with the United States.

Fascinating, funny, and bizarre, The Orchid Thief is a truly memorable and original work of nonfiction.

FROM THE CRITICS

Steve Silk - Fine Gardening

Thievery is one thing, but any gardener swept away by the beauty of a plant can understand obsession, especially when it takes the form of an absolute, unbearable need to possess some delicate charm. And that obsession to own runs deep in those consumed by the surreal beauty of orchids. Susan Orlean explores the obsessive nature of those passions in this fascinating story of treachery, greed, jealousy, and lust among orchid hunters and collectors in South Florida. It's a tale rife with fascinating characters, exotic locales, and oddities of all kinds.

Sally Eckhoff - Salon

Susan Orlean, a New Yorker essayist, is fond of leafing through small-town newspapers. She knew she was on to something when she tripped over the following odd combination of words in a Florida daily: "swamp," "orchids," "Seminoles," "cloning," "arrest." The tiny news item, about an upcoming hearing for an accused rare-plant poacher, had "cool story" written all over it. And so, Orlean, a pale and completely unpretentious redhead who makes Maxfield Parrish's models look like she-bears, took off for Naples, Fla., to investigate. The scene was not exactly what she expected. Soon she was standing hip-deep in the steaming Fakahatchee Swamp beside the very man the fuss was all about, a driven, eccentrically charming weirdo who struck her as handsome despite his lack of teeth. Their quarry: the rare polyrrhiza lindenii, or ghost orchid, which is federally protected and grows nowhere else in the world.

John Laroche, the orchid thief, had been trying to spirit several pillowcases full of ghost orchids out of the swamp when he was arrested. That's how he first made the papers. His three Seminole assistants were supposed to legitimize the theft, since the Fakahatchee is Seminole land. It's not surprising that he'd risk his neck in order to snag such booty. Propagating and selling ghost orchids -- as the botanically savvy Laroche was fully able to do -- would have made him very rich. What's especially strange about The Orchid Thief -- and it becomes increasingly fascinating as the story progresses -- is what a big deal orchids are. There's a rollicking history of orchidmania in here, if you can imagine such a thing, and a series of cameos depicting nurserymen and international smuggling. Ultimately, Laroche turns out to be just another nut in a long line of orchid nuts.

Orlean's buoyant, self-assured style makes the journey fun, especially when she's looking at the plants themselves, which are astonishing in their variety. "There are species that look like butterflies, bats, ladies' handbags, bees, swarms of bees, female wasps, clamshells, roots, camel hooves, squirrels, nuns dressed in their wimples, and drunken old men," she writes, particularly dazzled by a flower that looks like a pig on a swizzle stick. "People say a ghost orchid in bloom looks like a flying white frog -- an ethereal and beautiful flying white frog." Are we going to get to see one? There's real suspense around this question, and it lasts until the very last page.

Newsday

Damp heat, bugs, wild hogs, snapping turtles, poisonous snakes — and orchids...Wouldn't have missed it.

Ted Conover

Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed...It shows Orlean's gifts in full bloom. —The New York Times Book Review

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - The New York Times

...[A]rtful....her orchid story turns out to be distinctly "something more"....Ms. Orlean's portrait..allows the reader to discover...acres of opportunity where intriguing things can be found. Read all 15 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

The finest piece of nonfiction I've read in years: characters so juicy and wonderfully weird they might have stepped out of a novel, except these people are real. — James W. Hall

Orlean's prose is always lucid, lyrical, and deceptively comfortable, but with The Orchid Thief, she's in danger of launching a national epidemic of orchid mania. — Katherine Dunn

Orlean has crafted a classic tale of tropic desire, steamy and fragrant and smart and entertaining. — Bob Shacochis

Susan Orlean writes like a dream. The Orchid Thief is a horticultural page-turner, quite possibly the first of its kind. — Michael Pollan