I thought that this article was interesting and a beautiful distraction, and hope that everyone enjoys the beautiful orchid pics at the link:
Orchidelirium, an Obsession with Orchids, Has Lasted for Centuries. For those like me who didn't know that such a thing as
orchidelirium exists:
Orchids have long been the subject of intense scientific interest and at times, emotional obsession. "When a man falls in love with orchids, he'll do anything to possess the one he wants. It's like chasing a green-eyed woman or taking cocaine. . . it's a sort of madness," proclaims an orchid hunter in Susan Orlean’s bestselling book The Orchid Thief. This level of devotion has inspired significant investment in the flower throughout history, even motivating scientific breakthroughs that have made the once-elusive bloom plentiful and affordable enough for the everyday person.
Prior to advances in the last century, however, orchids were exclusively the purview of the elite. During the 1800s, a fascination for collecting the flowers erupted into hysteria. The craze, dubbed "orchidelirium," produced prices in the thousands of dollars. Special hunters were employed to track down exotic varieties in the wild and bring them to collectors, keen to display them in ornate, private greenhouses.
"Back in those days," says the Smithsonian's orchid specialist Tom Mirenda and curator of a new show that opened this week at the National Museum of Natural History, "orchids were for the rich, even royalty." Orchids in the wild, he says, were seen as "one-of-a-kind, true rarities."
Thus far, they have only Tweeted one pic, which I posted below.
[Refresh the page if you cannot see the Tweet]
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