Orchid Mania
Desire and Destruction in the Age of Empire
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Orchid Mania
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Ben Jacob
A quest of discovery.
An exploration of beauty.
A society in the grip of obsession.
In the nineteenth century, tropical orchids were the ultimate prize. Coveted by empresses, royalty and tycoons, these living treasures fuelled a fever that sent men deep into the world’s jungles to find them. Fortunes were won, lives were lost and a passion for nature became a ruthless business.
Drawing on a forgotten treasure trove of letters, historian Ben Jacob brings that age vividly to life as he follows in the footsteps of one of the last great ‘orchid hunters’, Wilhelm Micholitz, who risked everything in his search for the rarest of flowers, the elusive Elephant Moth Dendrobe.
But what was the cost of this fixation? And what does its legacy mean for us today?
Orchid Mania is a story about how love for the natural world can lead to destruction, fascination to plunder – and how an enduring passion for these endangered plants might yet be a force for renewal.