Orchid hunting

[1] However, there is some evidence that this conventional story about using specimens of Cattleya labiata as packing material is just a myth - Swainson actually saw exceptionally showy flowers of this orchid and understood its real value.

Orchid hunters faced tropical diseases, wild animals and venomous snakes, floods, indigenous peoples, and often fierce competition with each other.

William Arnold drowned in the fast and wild Orinoco River while on a collecting expedition; David Bowman died from dysentery; and yellow fever killed Gustavo Wallis in the Andean mountains.

He cabled the news to his employer Sander, and was ordered to return and to recollect, despite the fact that the rainy season made the collection of orchids all but impossible.

One entry in Micholitz's diary was made in Bogotá: I do not know what I would not give to be back in the well-ordered British or Dutch Colonies in the East, to be able to do work in peace and comparative comfort.

They claimed that cannibals on the Solomon Islands tortured their human sacrifices with the most beautiful blooming orchids placed around them so that the victims were able to see the color of the flowers growing richer from their own blood.

His men circled this village and saw abundant orchids everywhere, but because the smell was so deadly, the flowers were simply impossible to reach, like a lovely mirage.

[8] From 15 February to 16 March 2003, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ran their ninth orchid festival with a theme: "In Search of Paradise".