ORCHID FEVER

An exuberant romp through the surprisingly bizarre world of orchid collectors, where decorous matrons swoon over blooms,

bureaucrats act like SWAT teams, and reputable scientists punch customs officers in the face. Hansen's (Motoring with Mohammed, 1991, etc.) skeptical mind makes him the perfect guide to an activity that now generates nine billion dollars annually and rivals the 17th-century Dutch tulip mania in the fanaticism it inspires. During travels in the Far East, while attempting to help rain-forest villagers raise orchids for export, Hansen learned about CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), a Geneva-based environmental agency that, in his opinion, operates more like a group of thugs than an informed consortium of scientists and conservationists. Without any supporting data, they refuse to permit botanists and nurserymen to collect and breed orchids CITES considers endangered. Those who transgress their rules have their homes searched and their possessions, as well as their orchids, confiscated—or they wake to find a posse, armed with machine guns, surrounding their greenhouse. Hansen also introduces us to collectors like octogenarian Eleanor (who calls a provocative orchid of hers "a bodice ripper"), Terry (who has grown more than a million rare orchids and describes orchid breeding as an "illness, an addiction"), and Tom (who braves heat and insects to save wild orchids in northern Minnesota from destruction by road crews). Hansen's research into the trade took him around the world, from Borneo to Copenhagen, and his account of these visits is accompanied by descriptions of different orchids, the history of orchid fever (which began in ancient China), and an analysis of its current popularity. It is estimated that there are today four to five million orchid collectors worldwide.

A deliciously engaging tale of flower-power.