I've got a lot of boning up to do on happenings in the orchid world, I'm afraid. I let the cantakerous postings of the Orchid Digest pile up unread over the last couple of months, until last week when the news broke that another high profile somebody got busted for orchid smuggling. Scandalicious!! My ears always perk up for a good smuggling story, the media headlines are positively torrid.
The illegal trade, dubbed 'orchidelirium', threatens to destroy some species entirely. Thousands of pounds can be exchanged for each of the flowers admired for their sensuous shape and heady scent.
This one's even better:
"You can get off alcohol and drugs, but you never get off orchids. Never!"
... says the Telegraph. It goes on:
On the moist, spicy slopes of Borneo's 13,500ft Mount Kinabalu grows the Rothschild orchid, a plant too sexy for its stalk.
I am sensible to the fact that someone went to jail for that, and I appreciate it, whoever you are.
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