Orchid Fever (Methuen non-fiction) [Idioma Inglés] - Softcover

Hansen, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0413747506 ISBN 13: 9780413747501

Verlag: Methuen Publishing Ltd, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

The acclaimed author of Motoring with Mohammed brings us a compelling adventure into the remarkable world of the orchid and the impossibly bizarre array of international characters who dedicte 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. Deftly written and captivatingly researched, Orchid Fever is an endlessly enchanting and entertaining tour of an exotic world."A wonderful book, I've been up all night reading it, laughing and crying out in horror and clucking at the vivid images of bureaucracy with the bit in its teeth." —Annie Proulx"An extraordinary, well-told tale of botany, obsession and plant politics. Hansen's vivid descriptions of the complex techniques some orchids use to pollinate themselves will raise your eyebrows at nature's sexual ingenuity." —USA Today

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor:

A true story of one of the world's strangest plants and humanity's oddest obsessions: the orchid, brought to book by the author, traveller and self-confessed orchid obsessive. From the Orinoco River to the hothouses of Kew, and the clandestine nurseries of Europe to the peat bogs of Minnesota, this is a dark and humorous tale of orchid smugglers, ice-cream makers and visionary breeders; of courruption, murder and moths with 12-inch tongues; and of the vicious, bizarre world of international plant politics and the wide range of gentle people whose overriding passion is the cultivation of these beautiful, fragile flowers.. NOTA: El libro no está en español, sino en inglés.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Methuen Publishing Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0413747506
• ISBN 13: 9780413747501
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240