The Orchid Thief

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-10

Chapters 11-13

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary: “Osceola’s Head”

Orlean outlines more details about Laroche’s court case and explains why he was found guilty. At the same time, she discusses the history of the Seminole Tribe in Florida, focusing on the historical figure of Osceola and the tribe’s current chief, James Billie.

A few weeks after Orlean met with Moore, the judge in Laroche’s case announced her decision. She fined his three Seminole assistants $100 each but did not adjudge their guilt. She fined Laroche $500 and banned him from the Fakahatchee for a further six months. Laroche had done his research into the rights of the Seminole Tribe, which made them exempt from laws regarding endangered species, but he was playing legal chess with Randy Merrill, the state’s attorney. Merrill knew this exemption could jeopardize his case. However, Laroche and his assistants had taken the orchids from a state park, and Florida state law forbade anyone from taking any plants or animals—endangered or not—from a state park. This was simply an administrative rule, and there were no exemptions for Seminoles. This is what Merrill pursued so there would be no need for the judge to try to interpret the role of the exemption.

The author then explains the origins and history of the Seminole Tribe in Florida. They were composed of people from other tribes in Georgia and Alabama who moved into the land that is now part of Florida when driven there by white settlers. Only there did they take the name “Seminole.” After 1821, when Spain ceded the territory to the United States, the government tried to move the Seminoles to the west, as it did with many other Indigenous peoples. However, the Seminoles hid out in the swamps of southern Florida and never moved; nor did they ever sign a treaty with the US government.

The most famous Seminole leader was Osceola, whose heritage was part Cree, part white, and part Black. Strong and charismatic, he was a fierce warrior and was committed to the tribe. He did not have the bloodline to be a chief, but he won respect from the Seminole nonetheless and became a de facto leader. In 1837, when he was in his early 30s, he and other Seminoles were taken captive by the US government when they voluntarily met the Americans in good faith for negotiations. Instead, he was taken to South Carolina and imprisoned. Suffering from several illnesses, he died there. He remains a celebrated figure for the Seminoles, as Orlean explains: “Osceola fought on principle, was captured ignominiously, died prematurely, and left behind an unconquered people” (212).

After the court verdict, Laroche only lasted a few more months at the Seminole nursery. Some of the tribe members questioned his direction for the nursery, and he quarreled with his workers. His boss, Buster Baxley, strongly suggested he take a vacation, and when he returned he found that he had been replaced and a severance check was waiting for him. The new nursery manager then moved into more traditional products—Christmas trees and potted palms. Laroche vowed never to return to the reservation or have anything more to do with the Seminole Tribe.

The 25th annual tribal fair was held not long after, and Orlean wanted to go with Laroche. He was adamant about his pledge to avoid the tribe, though, so she went alone. She describes a scene like many country fairs except with a few Floridian twists: ne main attraction was alligator wrestling, and booths sold alligator meat. Tiny kids dressed up for the Little Mr. and Miss Seminole Pageant, and powwow dancers entertained the crowd.

Seminole Chief James Billie performed country and rock music with his band. He was an influential and popular chief who led the tribe for many years. Billie was instrumental in the Seminole Tribe’s scheme of starting gaming facilities with rules and hours different from those of the state. This was upheld legally as the tribe was a sovereign nation, and the Seminoles became quite wealthy as a result.

In the 1980s, he was involved in a controversial case after shooting a protected Florida panther late one night. His defense veered between claiming he could not see it and thought it was a deer, and claiming to have shot it on purpose as training to become a medicine man. Either way, he argued, tribe members were exempt from the law on protected animals. Both state and federal charges were filed, but in the end, he was acquitted in the state case and the federal charges were dropped.

Chapter 12 Summary: “Fortunes”

In this chapter, Orlean describes her visit to the South Florida Orchid Society Show, which was held shortly after the tribal fair. She had assumed she would go with Laroche—and wanted to go with him—but he told her he had sworn off the flower world just as he had done with the Seminoles. His new obsession was computers: He claimed he was going to strike it rich creating websites for businesses and posting pornography. He finally said he might meet the author there for a few minutes if she “was really desperate for his company” (247).

Instead, Orlean went to the show with Martin Motes. That year’s theme was the centennial of Miami, so Motes’s display, like most, focused on history. It was a swamp scene with a dugout canoe. There were displays with fake alligators and one made to look like a Victorian sitting room. For his display, Bob Fuchs built a late-19th-century Florida cabin that was nearly full-sized. They walked around, greeting old acquaintances and borrowing supplies. Orlean describes the growers setting up as a close-knit community quite familiar with one another, like a family. It was a group within which to navigate and make sense of the world, even though some members did not get along. However, they were also individuals with different preferences and tastes. Balancing the two identities was a skill she envied.

Orlean wanted to see a ghost orchid at the show but knew she would not do so. In a way, she felt freed by that knowledge; the pressure was off and without hoping to see one, she could not be disappointed. She describes the light and easy banter between people as she made her way around to different booths. Bob Fuchs won all the major awards, including for best display, which brought acclaim, more money for his flowers, and a chance to influence the future. The winning plants become popular, Orlean explains, so other growers use them for hybrids, continuing their particular look.

Chapter 13 Summary: “A Kind of Direction”

The last chapter recounts a trip the author and Laroche made to the Fakahatchee in search of ghost orchids, just before she left Florida to return for good to New York. The day before, they had attended an orchid show in Miami, where Laroche met a lot of old friends from his days in the flower business. He told everyone he had quit plants and was now working as an “internet publisher.”

When he and Orlean later walked around the grounds outside the show, she asked him if he missed that world. He replied: “Of course I miss it […] You just have to find something else to fill up your life” (267). On the way home, they stopped to visit an old friend of Laroche’s. Before they parted, they made plans for the morning: She would pick him up by 5 o’clock at the latest, and he would prepare the food and supplies for them.

When Laroche got in the car the next morning, he had nothing with him and suggested they stop at the Seminole trading post on the way for food—making an exception in his vow to avoid the tribe. By the time they set off, it was 7 o’clock and getting warm. Laroche drove, speeding so fast down the straight highway called Alligator Alley that everything out the window was a blur. At the Fakahatchee, they parked at a levee, and Laroche assured Orlean that he knew the place well. They got out and began walking.

Soon it became a slow trek through water that was waist-deep. Orlean writes that each step was really like three: first to check for alligators, then to check for “shin-cracking” parts of cypress roots, and finally to place her foot in the soft muck. Laroche found several other orchids, and then a ghost orchid already finished flowering. The hours wore on and the sun rose above the trees, pumping up the heat. He swore he would find her a flowering ghost orchid, but he never did.

They got lost—though Laroche refused to admit it—and rested a while when they came to a dry patch of land. He tried to make a sundial from a stick to check the right direction, but it did not work. Finally, they just set out walking as straight as they could, and “after hours or minutes or forever” (282), they came to a levee where they spotted the car.

Chapters 11-13 Analysis

These last three chapters return to the central narrative to wrap up the story about Laroche and give him the last word. A verdict comes down on his court case, and Orlean explains why he was found guilty. The last chapter focuses on the author, Laroche, the Fakahatchee, and a final search for the ghost orchid—that is, the story stripped back down to its fundamentals.

In between, Orlean gives in-depth information about the last group with a role in the story: the Seminole Tribe. She visits their nursery both before and after Laroche is fired, provides background about their history in the state of Florida, describes a tribal fair she attends, and discusses their (then) current chief. The tribe is involved in the story only tangentially as the employer of Laroche when he committed his orchid theft. Three of the tribe members helped him, but they were given only perfunctory punishment since they were under his direction. The truth is that they really had nothing to do with orchid collecting and hunting; it was simply their exemption from the law that Laroche was trying to use for his scheme. However, they did have a similar legal issue in Chief Billie’s case of shooting a protected panther. The author’s exploration of this case is helpful for understanding how the needs and culture of the tribe is balanced against the laws of the United States.

The theme of The Benefits of Community is strongly reflected in these final chapters. In discussing the Seminoles in Chapter 11, Orlean highlights the historical and cultural ties that bind them together. The tribal fair is a showcase of their thriving community, with their unique customs giving them a common way of expressing their culture. Likewise, in Chapter 12, in which Orlean describes the last flower show she attends, the South Florida Orchid Society Show. The world of orchid growers and dealers is on full display here, and Orlean observes them coming together in community even as they compete for prizes. The final chapter focuses on Laroche alone, and this only serves to highlight his lack of community: No longer part of the orchid world, having moved on to computer work, he is missing this aspect of his former work. As he discusses collecting with Orlean, he notes that it gives one “a kind of direction” (279)—that is, a focus and a community.

The Link Between Passion and Obsession is also present, both in terms of the passion displayed by the competitors at the flower show and Laroche’s own reflections on his former orchid-collecting obsession. While much of the book has highlighted the dangers of obsession, both in terms of the potential for criminality in the flower world and the single-mindedness it can induce in its adherents, the book’s closing chapters offer a more nuanced portrait of some of the benefits. Not only are the positive aspects of community displayed, but The Human Desire for Beauty and Uniqueness is also celebrated as imbuing life and passions with special meaning. Laroche’s wistfulness and nostalgia for his old life in the plant world suggest that, for all his scheming, his attachment to that world was not based solely on profitable schemes alone. Laroche has found a new obsession by the book’s end—computers—but this more pragmatic and solitary pursuit is not, he suggests, quite as emotionally fulfilling as that offered by the seductive beauty of the orchids.