I love books that combine crime & nature and this one does so nearly flawlessly.
It is entertaining throughout, with tales of colorful characters in the orchid world. While I know CITE's and the fish & wildlife service have their faults, I thought a journalist would have given a more balanced view, but all in all an informative and entertaining read
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An adventure into the world of the orchid and the array of international characters who dedicate their lives to it.

The orchid is used for everything from medicine for elephants to an aphrodisiac ice cream. A Malaysian species can grow to weigh half a ton while a South American species fires miniature pollen darts at nectar-sucking bees. But the orchid is also the center of an illicit international business: one grower in Santa Barbara tends his plants while toting an Uzi, and a former collector has been in hiding for seven years after serving a jail sentence for smuggling thirty dollars worth of orchids into Britain.

Hansen knows how to get the reader's attention. Orchid Fever opens with a human body falling through a rain forest canopy. His guide, Tiong, seemingly fell out of the sky. Hansen was on the island of Borneo to help build an upriver plant nursery for the Penan people. How is this for a cryptic meeting time and place: "The message was for them to meet us at the junction of the Limbang and Medalam rivers on the full moon of the fourth month of 1993" (p 8)?
He approaches his subject of orchid crime with a sense of skepticism at first. He calls these orchid-obsessed horticulturalists, "orchid people" as if they are some kind of alien race and yet, he travels the globe to meet them and start using words like racket, exploitation, trafficking, plunder, pirating, and smuggling to describe their behavior. Soon Hansen realizes these "orchid people" are so passionate about their orchids some can be driven to actual violence if provoked. It also seems that every time a legitimate researcher gets a shipment of orchids no matter how lawfully or innocently, that's when the trouble starts. But orchids are not just for flower shows and smuggling. Hansen travels to Turkey and learns about how orchid ice cream is made from the tubers of a specific orchid. A flour made from the dried tubers creates a chewy, almost elastic texture. He also learns of the medicinal properties of orchids with such claims as the ability to heal a damaged spleen, prevent cholera and tuberculosis, facilitate childbirth, and improve sex life. Orchis in Greek does mean testicle...Along those lines, you will be introduced to the term 'phyto-necrophilia.' It is the "abnormal fascination or love of a dead plant material. Yes, it's a thing. Hansen also travels to Minnesota, an area you don't readily think of for orchids, to meet a man who tries to save orchids from being bulldozed in developing areas. ( )

really good yarn about a strange passion. may they all be as crazy as this. ( )

Caution: Do Not read the opening passages of this book while drinking. Or in public. Or anywhere you would be embarassed to be caught laughing out loud.

I ran around from coworker to coworker and forced them to listen to me read passages aloud. I read to myself and giggled audibly (I also chuckled, chortled, and snorted, but I don’t like to talk about that.). I knew a tiny bit about orchids and orchid growers from reading The Orchid Thief (which I also recommend), but I believed that it was an isolated incident. Boy was I wrong.

These people are crazy! It’s a flower, for pete’s squeak, not diamonds or gold. But Hansen does an excellent job drawing you in and introducing you to the orchid people. You’ll become fascinated with the intricacies of orchid law and lore, but mostly with those who flout the (admittedly wacky) rules all for the love of a flower.

There’s the sweet little old lady with tens of thousands of dollars in contraband orchids in her basement. There’s the orchid lawmakers, most of whom wouldn’t recognize an orchid if it ran up and bit ‘em on the ankle. There’s the vicious infighting and competition for the rarest bulbs. There’s the passel of government agents, armed with machine guns, no less, who tear up some guys flooring because they believe he smuggles orchids.

Who knew the passions one little flower could arouse? Do yourself a favor and check this one out. Hansen clearly is as enthralled with his subjects as they are with orchids, and that makes for a very entertaining read indeed
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