In 1993 Eric Hansen led an expedition into the steaming jungles of Borneo to find the world's rarest orchid. Seven years later he was still on the trail of the true story behind one of nature's strangest plants and humanity's greatest obsessions.
           Orchid Fever is a seductive journey into the mesmerizing world of orchids. From the Orinoco River to the hothouses of Kew, and from the clandestine nurseries of Europe to the peat bogs of northern Minnesota, this is a tale of luscious, sexy flowers, orchid smugglers, fist fighting botanists, moths with twelve inch-long tongues, murder, corruption, and government officials who raid orchid nurseries with attack dogs and automatic weapons. Strange tales of insect pollenator fidelity and the orchid ice cream makers of Eastern Turkey, are blended with haunting stories about a wide range of gentle people whose passion in life is the creation of scented, fragile flowers.
           Eric Hansen spent seven years exploring the far corners of the earth - marveling at flowers of uncommon beauty, studying the history of the orchid trade, and grappling with the vicious, bizarre, and petty world of plant politics that sometimes makes it impossible to protect endangered species of orchids. Hansen brings to life colorful flowers and the even more colorful people who are attracted to them, as he illuminates a funny, wierd, and poignant world of horticultural passion and pathos.