1 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Today we are returning to an episode on flowers, 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:11,479 Speaker 1: specifically orchids, and the tremendous enthusiasm for them during the 3 00:00:11,560 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Victorian era. This originally came out on July second, twenty eighteen. 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a 5 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 6 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,239 Speaker 1: Holly Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And if you 7 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,880 Speaker 1: listen to the twenty eleven Tulipmania episode that Sarah and 8 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: Deblina did you know already that sometimes people go a 9 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: little mad in their obsessions when it comes to plants. 10 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: And today we're going to talk about another episode in 11 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:52,920 Speaker 1: history in which plants became a status symbol and the 12 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: cornerstone of a high dollar industry. And while we're not 13 00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: really going to talk about him later on in this episode, 14 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: I'd did want to mention that this one also brushes 15 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: up against our episode on Joseph Paxton in the Crystal Palace, 16 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,760 Speaker 1: because Paxton also cultivated gardens and built a conservatory for 17 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: William Cavendish, the sixth Duke of Devonshire, also known as 18 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: the Bachelor Duke, and in that job, he gathered the 19 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 1: largest collection in England for his royal employer. The bachelor 20 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: Duke had also fallen victim to orchid delirium, which was 21 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: an intense obsession with the plants that was sweeping through 22 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 1: Victorian England at the time, and that is what we 23 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,199 Speaker 1: were talking about today. So orchids date back at least 24 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: twenty million years. In two thousand and seven, a bee 25 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: was discovered. It was preserved in amber and it dated 26 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 1: back that far and also still had orchid pollen stuck 27 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: to its wings. A fossilized orchid from New Zealand is 28 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: dated back twenty one million years. It's possible that orchids 29 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: existed as far back as the Late Cretaceous period around 30 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: eighty million years ago, or maybe even longer. Yes, so 31 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: they survived when the dinosaurs did not. Orchids grow all 32 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: over the world. The only inhospitable areas are open water, 33 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,799 Speaker 1: true deserts, and glaciers, and there are species of orchid 34 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: that grow from the ground, but a lot of varieties 35 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: are epiphytes, meaning that they grow on other plants or rocks. 36 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: Some even grow on fungus. They are sometimes mentioned as 37 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: being parasitic. That's not actually the case. They're getting their 38 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: nutrients from the air around them. They just kind of 39 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: need a place to perch. And unsurprisingly for a plant 40 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: family that can thrive in so many different places, there 41 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,000 Speaker 1: is a vast range of species of orchid. There are 42 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: more than twenty seven thousand species of orchid. Some sources 43 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: will list that number is even higher. More are being 44 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: discovered all the time. This incredible range makes the taxonomy 45 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 1: of the Orchidacea challenging. The flowers of orchids can range 46 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,240 Speaker 1: from single flowering plants to multiple blooms on a stalk, 47 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: and this is the most diverse flour family. Orchids are 48 00:03:01,919 --> 00:03:05,280 Speaker 1: usually pollinated by insects or birds, and the plants have 49 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: evolved to make themselves as appealing as possible to their pollinators. 50 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: A lot of times the plants have a petal or 51 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: leaf shapes that enable pollinators to rest on the plant 52 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: while they're making a visit. An estimated one third of 53 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: orchid species have figured out some kind of trickery to 54 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: ensure their propagation, so there are varieties that look and 55 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,919 Speaker 1: smell like female bees so that solitary males will come 56 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: and spread their pollen around. The Dracula orchid attracts insects 57 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: that usually eat dung by emitting a lot of different 58 00:03:38,280 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: horrifying smells that reproduce the sense of not just animal excrement, 59 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: but also urine and decaying meat. Yeah, that's one of 60 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: those plants where I will admit just because I like 61 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: Gothic ethings by virtue of it being called the dracula orchid, 62 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: I'm like yes, and then knowing what it smells like, 63 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,840 Speaker 1: hard pass. The slipper orchid has a really unique structure 64 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: that first offers an inviting drink from its pouch like 65 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:06,960 Speaker 1: structure that's like the pebal on the bottom is kind 66 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: of shaped like a little pouch, and then that will 67 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: trap insects attracted to it in the pouch with only 68 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,360 Speaker 1: one way out, and that path involves the insect passing 69 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: through usually a tight opening that ensures that its body 70 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: is covered with pollen grains pollinia, and then, once free, 71 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: when that insect is drawn to the next bloom, those 72 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: pollen grains are deposited and new ones are picked up, 73 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 1: and so on. A single orchid plant can produce as 74 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: many as seventy four million seeds, and in the while 75 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,839 Speaker 1: they require exposure to a symbiotic fungus to germinate in 76 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:47,480 Speaker 1: controlled conditions like nurseries and home germination, a special growing 77 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:52,440 Speaker 1: medium is used instead. Orchids can also propagate asexually through division, 78 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 1: when a single plant splits into two actively growing pieces. Yeah, 79 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:01,680 Speaker 1: that division approach was used a lot by some of 80 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:04,279 Speaker 1: the people that we will be talking about later. The 81 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,600 Speaker 1: other thing that I think we should mention is that 82 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: a lot of these orchids are so specific in the 83 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: way they have evolved to attract one specific pollinator, and 84 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,480 Speaker 1: it becomes a really unique relationship. Orchids have of course 85 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: been revered by humans throughout recorded history. They were thought 86 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: to have aphrodisiac qualities in ancient Greece, they were used 87 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: to flavor food by the Aztecs, and they have been 88 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries to treat everything 89 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,919 Speaker 1: from lung and kidney disease to tonsilitis and even cancer. 90 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:41,159 Speaker 1: While studying the angercum sesquepadale, Charles Darwin came to the 91 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: conclusion at this flower which has a really deep bloom 92 00:05:44,480 --> 00:05:47,560 Speaker 1: and then a nectary, which is the glandular organ that 93 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: secretes nectar. Sometimes it's deep at thirty centimeters, which is 94 00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 1: a little over eleven inches. They concluded that it must 95 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,080 Speaker 1: have evolved alongside a moth species that had a unique 96 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: trait to allow oh it to be pollinated. So to 97 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: explain how this flower with this very deep well could 98 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: be pollinated, he theorized that a moth must have a 99 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: proboscis that could extend up to almost the length of 100 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,119 Speaker 1: the entire flower's depth. And this particular bit of orchid 101 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: study has become really famous because coevolution at this point 102 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:22,800 Speaker 1: was a very new idea, and because Darwin did not 103 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:26,599 Speaker 1: have a moth specimen to back up this theory. Charles 104 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: Darwin died in eighteen eighty two without ever having his 105 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:34,080 Speaker 1: hypothesis confirmed. In nineteen oh seven, though, a subspecies of 106 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:37,680 Speaker 1: the giant congo moth, which came from Madagascar, just as 107 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:43,160 Speaker 1: Darwin's orchid samples had, was discovered. This moth subspecies, named 108 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: ex Morgani predicta, was approximately sixteen centimeters from wingtip to wingtip, 109 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:50,920 Speaker 1: and it had a proboscis which sat coiled on its 110 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: head and then could extend twenty centimeters or more. It 111 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: seemed to fit the bill, but it wasn't until nineteen 112 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:00,400 Speaker 1: ninety two more than a century after Darwin's death that 113 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: scientists were finally able to actually observe and capture footage 114 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: of these large moss pollinating those orchids. It looks really cool, 115 00:07:11,280 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 1: it does, it's really neat. But what's important for today's 116 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:17,080 Speaker 1: show in terms of the work that Darwin was doing 117 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: with orchids, is that it all happened in the second 118 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: half of the nineteenth century, and at the same time, 119 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: particularly in Victorian England, orchideleirium was becoming a significant phenomenon. 120 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: Botanist William John Swainson is often credited with introducing orchids 121 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: from Brazil to Great Britain and sparking the obsession with 122 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: these flowers, but that happened actually by accident, at least 123 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: according to legend. So the story goes that Swainson had 124 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: picked up a number of other plant samples to ship 125 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: back home to England in the eighteen teens, and he 126 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: used unbloomed orchids, which he believed at the time to 127 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,280 Speaker 1: be weeds, as packing material, and the orchids bloomed either 128 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: en route to their destination or just after the parcels 129 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,960 Speaker 1: were unpacked, depending on your source, and immediately captured the 130 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 1: attention of everyone who saw them as great Britain continued 131 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: to expand its power through colonization, exoticism, flourished. People of 132 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: means became collectors of rare and exciting things from all 133 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,280 Speaker 1: around the world, and orchids became an obsession for some 134 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: of them. Naturally, a cottage industry grew to fill this 135 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: expanding demand for these blooms, and the second half of 136 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:29,760 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century saw the business of orchid collecting growing 137 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:34,640 Speaker 1: and selling, reaching cutthroat levels of competition. And coming up, 138 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: we are going to talk about a man who came 139 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: to be known as the Orchid King, but first we're 140 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:50,480 Speaker 1: going to pause for a word from one of our sponsors. 141 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,640 Speaker 1: One of the most famous entrepreneurs to capitalize on orchid 142 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: delirium was Frederick Sander. Sander was born in Germany in 143 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: eighteen forty seven. At the age of twenty, he had 144 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: moved to London and started working for a seed company, 145 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 1: but he didn't stay there for long because while he 146 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: was working there, he met a Czechoslovakian botanist named Benedict Rosel, 147 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 1: and before long the two men decided to go into 148 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: business together. Rosel was more than twenty years older than Sander. 149 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,440 Speaker 1: He'd been working with plants since he was twelve, first 150 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:24,160 Speaker 1: as an apprentice gardener and then tending the gardens of 151 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:27,920 Speaker 1: European aristocracy. In the eighteen fifties, he had moved to 152 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: Mexico and set up a hemp nursery, but he had 153 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,560 Speaker 1: an accident. There was a machine that he invented to 154 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:36,400 Speaker 1: clean hemp fiber and it severed one of his hands. 155 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:39,640 Speaker 1: He went back to Europe before switching careers to become 156 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,080 Speaker 1: a plant hunter, and he replaced that lost hand with 157 00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:44,520 Speaker 1: a hook, and according to legend, that gave him some 158 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:48,040 Speaker 1: added cachet on his adventures. Yeah, he apparently was a 159 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,679 Speaker 1: very tall, striking man to begin with, and then when 160 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:53,840 Speaker 1: he had this hook hand, it kind of fulfills every 161 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: Victorian romantic novel fantasy of like a rough and rugged person. 162 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: And he is kind of talked about that way even 163 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: today when you read about him in books about orchids. 164 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:07,640 Speaker 1: And when Rosel met Sander, he had been collecting plants 165 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: abroad for some time, but he had never had a 166 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: partner who could receive them and then sell the inventory 167 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,760 Speaker 1: back home, which meant that he would have to travel 168 00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:17,559 Speaker 1: back and forth with the plants, and it cut down 169 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:20,240 Speaker 1: on his time to collect, and because he had been 170 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 1: a one man operation, his success was modest. But once 171 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: Rosell teamed up with Sander, that changed rapidly. The two 172 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,600 Speaker 1: of them set up shop in the Saint Albans district 173 00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:34,160 Speaker 1: north of London. Sander had a great head for business 174 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: and Rosel just no longer encumbered by having to worry 175 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:39,720 Speaker 1: about the fate of his shipments. Once they reached England, 176 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: could just keep on collecting without any kind of constraint. 177 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 1: They were quickly trading in orchids and volumes that were 178 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:48,960 Speaker 1: way beyond anything that had done before. They had a 179 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,240 Speaker 1: warehouse adjacent to their shop that was literally packed to 180 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,520 Speaker 1: the rafters with stock. Rosel worked for decades with Sander, 181 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 1: making trips all over the world to collect orchids before 182 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 1: he retired a very wealthy man, with dozens of plants 183 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: named after him and having discovered more than eight hundred 184 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:09,800 Speaker 1: different species. In eighteen seventy three, Frederick Sander built his 185 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:12,880 Speaker 1: first greenhouse so that he could cultivate his own seedlings 186 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:16,360 Speaker 1: as well as importing stock. But within a few years 187 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:19,200 Speaker 1: it became obvious that he was really quickly going to 188 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: deplete that space, so in eighteen eighty one he left 189 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: the seed shop and he expanded significantly to a four 190 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,640 Speaker 1: acre parcel of land where he built five dozen greenhouses. 191 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: He also contracted additional orchid hunters, eventually employing twenty three 192 00:11:35,040 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: men to travel the globe and find him new plants. 193 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: He also wrote a four volume compendium of orchids titled 194 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:48,199 Speaker 1: Reichmbachia Orchids Illustrated and Described. It had illustrations by Henry 195 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:52,840 Speaker 1: George Moon, which are beautiful. It described almost two hundred 196 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: species of orchid and was published over the course of 197 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,840 Speaker 1: several years in the late eighteen eighties. In eighteen eighty six, 198 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: Sander became Queen Victoria's official royal orchid grower, a title 199 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,280 Speaker 1: which also gave his business a boost. He had also 200 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,520 Speaker 1: incidentally dedicated one of the volumes of Reichenbachia to her, 201 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:13,640 Speaker 1: and Sander used his high volume of acquisition and production 202 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 1: to expand his customer base. Eventually, even middle income plant 203 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: enthusiasts could afford to possess an orchid because of his work. 204 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: Sander opened a nursery across the Atlantic in New Jersey 205 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:29,240 Speaker 1: to fill demand, but he found running at long distance 206 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:32,240 Speaker 1: to just be too difficult, and he sold that business 207 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:35,719 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety six. Two years before he got rid 208 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 1: of that North American nursery, he had opened another nursery 209 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:42,800 Speaker 1: outside of Bruges, Belgium, and the Belgium enterprise, being much 210 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: closer to London, was more easily manageable for Sander. He 211 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:47,360 Speaker 1: could go over there and stay for a while and 212 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 1: handle things, but also quickly travel back home to oversee 213 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: things in the London office. And that Belgium office quickly expanded, 214 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: just as his English compound had. I think it too, 215 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,400 Speaker 1: ended up with about five dozen greenhouses, and that one 216 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,680 Speaker 1: also diversified a lot and carried a really wide variety 217 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:09,559 Speaker 1: of plants, including azaleas, lilies, and palms. Sander was well respected. 218 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:13,359 Speaker 1: He had a reputation as an honest, direct and energetic businessman. 219 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 1: His love of orchids seemed to have been really genuine, 220 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:19,960 Speaker 1: and he won a lot of awards at international exhibitions 221 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: for both new species that he introduced and for hybrids 222 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: that were developed in his nurseries. Dealing in orchids was 223 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: in some ways kind of like trading stocks today, where 224 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,720 Speaker 1: the values of plants could fluctuate wildly over short periods 225 00:13:32,760 --> 00:13:36,400 Speaker 1: of time. At one point, according to an account by Sander, 226 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: he sold an orchid to a lawyer from Liverpool for 227 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:43,040 Speaker 1: twelve dollars, which already was probably not the tiniest amount 228 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:45,480 Speaker 1: you could imagine being for a flower. But then five 229 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:48,320 Speaker 1: years later that attorney sold it back to him for 230 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,959 Speaker 1: a thousand and While Sander enjoyed the wheeling and dealing, 231 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:55,440 Speaker 1: receiving shipments, and tending the nurseries, the men that he 232 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: was sending out into the world to find new orchids 233 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:01,959 Speaker 1: were literally risking their lives. To give a sense of 234 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: just how perilous this work was. According to the book 235 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: The Woodland's Orchids, written by Frederick Boyle and published in 236 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 1: nineteen oh one, French orchid hunter Leone Humboldt had relayed 237 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:15,840 Speaker 1: to the author that while he was collecting orchids in Madagascar, 238 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,239 Speaker 1: he and his brother had hosted a dinner in Tamatave, 239 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:22,120 Speaker 1: which is now known more commonly, I believe, as Tomasina. 240 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,840 Speaker 1: Twelve months after that dinner, Leon Humboldt was the only 241 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: man from that table left alive. As orchid hunters made 242 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: their way around the globe, they really really often met 243 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: with bad ends. Some of them were murdered, some of 244 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,560 Speaker 1: them died after run ins with wild animals, a lot 245 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 1: of them died of tropical diseases, and some of them 246 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:48,320 Speaker 1: just vanished. Yeah, and there were instances where they were murdered, 247 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: sometimes by other plant hunters. This was really a very 248 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: cutthroat business. Hunter William Arnold drowned in the Arenaco River 249 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: in Venezuela while he was hunting for specimens, and that 250 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,880 Speaker 1: was after he had barely avoided a high probability of 251 00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: death in a duel with another orchid hunter over a disagreement. 252 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: The duel never actually quite happened, but they were right 253 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,280 Speaker 1: up to it. Even Benedict Rosel, who was very successful 254 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: at all of this, met with grave misfortune in his travels. 255 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 1: He was robbed at gun or knife point, or sometimes both, 256 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,840 Speaker 1: seventeen times over his career. His nephew, Francis at Klaboch, 257 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:26,680 Speaker 1: died of yellow fever after the two of them went 258 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:30,080 Speaker 1: on an expedition together. William Mikolitz was one of Sanders's 259 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: best agents, and Sander was relentless in pushing him. There 260 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,920 Speaker 1: were numerous occasions where the man met with ill fortune, 261 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: and he would cable back to Sander that the trip 262 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: had gone really awry and he wanted to return to 263 00:15:41,480 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: England to regroup, and Sander always told him, no, no, 264 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,520 Speaker 1: stay there, go back collect more samples. And at one 265 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:50,520 Speaker 1: point he even sent him to Columbia when the country 266 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:54,680 Speaker 1: was very dangerous to travel in due to violent internal conflict. 267 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,680 Speaker 1: That conflict had been going on for a long long time, 268 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: but there were times when it escalated and Sander did 269 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:02,920 Speaker 1: not care. He just sent him in to get more flowers. 270 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: There was a particularly violent experience in Papua New Guinea 271 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:11,880 Speaker 1: in which Mikolitz witnessed several beheadings and dismemberments, and that 272 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:14,360 Speaker 1: left him really shaken and desperate to go back home, 273 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,880 Speaker 1: but on orders, he stayed there and found more orchids. 274 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:21,200 Speaker 1: He survived his career as an orchid hunter, but he 275 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: didn't wind up retiring in style. He was almost destitute 276 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: when he died back home in Germany. Yeah, there's one story, 277 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:30,160 Speaker 1: and I feel like we should mention in all of 278 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: these stories that the people that were telling them were 279 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,880 Speaker 1: the men who survived. So there is also the probability 280 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: that some embellishment may have happened in this case, Mikolitz 281 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: did survive, but there is a story that at one 282 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,160 Speaker 1: point he had been in the midst of an area 283 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:47,880 Speaker 1: that had had a lot of violence for a long 284 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:53,360 Speaker 1: time due to various internal conflicts. He had wanted to leave, 285 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: Sanders sent him back and he ended up finding this 286 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,160 Speaker 1: orchid that was really prized, but it was growing on 287 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: a dead body, so he had to kind of steel 288 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:06,960 Speaker 1: himself just to collect this flower. That poor man, to me, 289 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 1: just seems like so abused in that relationship. But another 290 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:16,439 Speaker 1: orchid hunter, Albert Milliken, had several successful expeditions, and he 291 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:19,640 Speaker 1: actually penned a very popular book about his job titled 292 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,399 Speaker 1: Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter. But unfortunately he 293 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:26,280 Speaker 1: took one too many trips. He was stabbed to death 294 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,439 Speaker 1: on his last mission in the Andes. In contrast, there 295 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: was a pair of brothers, William and Thomas Lobb, who 296 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:35,639 Speaker 1: worked as plant hunters for Vitch Nurseries. They both managed 297 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: to retire from plant hunting rather than dying on the job. 298 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 1: While there were definitely a number of business dramas in 299 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: their lives and there was a great deal of adventure, 300 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:47,359 Speaker 1: the two of them bandaged traveling separately to collect a 301 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,919 Speaker 1: wide variety of plant species, a lot of them are 302 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 1: still common in gardens today, and they died after settling 303 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,879 Speaker 1: down after their wilder exploits. Yeah, I actually have some 304 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:00,720 Speaker 1: plans to do an episode just on the two of 305 00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:04,239 Speaker 1: them and then not so distant future, and next up 306 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:07,239 Speaker 1: we're gonna delve into just how very tricky it was 307 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: for orchid hunters to get their found prizes back to Europe, 308 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 1: provided that they collected them and did not die along 309 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:15,680 Speaker 1: the way. But first we're going to take a little 310 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:28,919 Speaker 1: sponsor break. So in this next section there is a 311 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: piece from an article that I'm going to read which 312 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 1: is written in nineteen oh six. It includes some language 313 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,959 Speaker 1: that is outdated and racist at this point, but I 314 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,840 Speaker 1: wanted to include it so you have a sense of 315 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: how this whole thing was sort of romanticized and seen, 316 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:45,560 Speaker 1: and even while acknowledging that it was difficult, it kind 317 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: of is written in this way that suggests like dashing adventure, 318 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:52,600 Speaker 1: because even if a hunter did manage to find orchids 319 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:56,200 Speaker 1: and survive, collecting them and then getting to the next 320 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,400 Speaker 1: step was also really really hard work. This is from 321 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:01,880 Speaker 1: a nineteen oh six article which ran in the Washington 322 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:05,120 Speaker 1: DC Evening Star, and was written by William George Fitzgerald, 323 00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:08,240 Speaker 1: who wrote, quote, for difficult as it is to find 324 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: rare orchids at all, the trouble only begins when the 325 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:14,639 Speaker 1: hunter discovers them. He must pack and prepare them for 326 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,480 Speaker 1: transportation by koli and assam by long necked lama in 327 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: the Andes, by raft or elephant, and contrived to get 328 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,639 Speaker 1: them thousands of miles across the ocean in such a 329 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:28,720 Speaker 1: condition that at least twenty percent of them will arrive 330 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,880 Speaker 1: with some vitality in them. And yet ten thousand plants 331 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:35,960 Speaker 1: may be collected on some remote Andean peak or Popuan 332 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 1: jungle with infinite care and consigned to Europe, the freight 333 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:44,040 Speaker 1: alone accounting for thousands of dollars, Yet on arrival there 334 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 1: may not be a single orchid left alive. The plants 335 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:51,960 Speaker 1: themselves were also endangered by all the very mania that 336 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 1: was driving all this orchid hunting. For one, when an 337 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,200 Speaker 1: orchid hunter found a new species, it was pretty standard 338 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,879 Speaker 1: practice to just dig up every single to keep the 339 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:05,400 Speaker 1: fine to themselves. On occasions, the hunters would also sabotage 340 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,200 Speaker 1: one another. Sander advised his men to urinate on other 341 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: hunters halls if the opportunity arose to try to destroy 342 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,560 Speaker 1: their work. A needless to say, conservation of the ecological 343 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: systems where they were hunting these orchids was not a 344 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:24,760 Speaker 1: priority at all. No Rosal in particular had kind of 345 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:28,920 Speaker 1: a reputation for being kind of sloppy and a little 346 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: bit borish and destructive in his collecting methods. By the 347 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,440 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, though, advancements were being made both in cultivating 348 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:41,359 Speaker 1: orchids from seeds and by reproducing them through division, and 349 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,480 Speaker 1: that slowly drove down the delirium that had propelled all 350 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: of those dangerous expeditions. Additionally, a lot of the men 351 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: who had been drawn to the adventure of orchid hunting 352 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 1: were dead, and the few who had survived were retired. 353 00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,439 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventeen, the Lady Slipper orchid was to cleared 354 00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 1: extinct in Great Britain. The Lady Slipper, as its name suggests, 355 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 1: has a little pouch that looks like the delicate toe 356 00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: of a slipper, and then above that pouch are normally 357 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,919 Speaker 1: three petals, with the topmost petal usually larger than the 358 00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,800 Speaker 1: two that fall to the side, often there's a little twist. 359 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:22,479 Speaker 1: This flower is gold and burgundy, and orchid enthusiasts just 360 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,439 Speaker 1: could not help themselves when it came to cutting the 361 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:28,600 Speaker 1: flowers and digging them up, which often left them to 362 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:33,160 Speaker 1: die in the process. In the nineteen thirties, a single 363 00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:36,880 Speaker 1: remaining Lady Slipper orchid was found growing wild in Great 364 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: Britain in Yorkshire Dales. That was the last known wild 365 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,880 Speaker 1: orchid there not the last known wild one on earth. 366 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,880 Speaker 1: Just for clarity, and even though Orchidelirium had calmed down 367 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:49,960 Speaker 1: to the point of non existence by the time of 368 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:54,359 Speaker 1: this discovery, that single plant kicked off a refreshed obsession, 369 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: in part just because of the financial value of the plant. 370 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:00,639 Speaker 1: This was so intense that the plant had to be 371 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:04,840 Speaker 1: guarded by police and conservation minded volunteers from plant hunters 372 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,680 Speaker 1: who might try to find it. Once its existence became 373 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,920 Speaker 1: public knowledge, a group called the Sipper Petium Committee, which 374 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,879 Speaker 1: was named after the plant's Latin name, formed to protect 375 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,359 Speaker 1: the plant in the immediate sense and then also to 376 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,760 Speaker 1: set out a long term plan for its well being. 377 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:24,520 Speaker 1: They kept the exact location of that Lady Slipper orchid 378 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: a secret, and that orchid is still alive today. In 379 00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:30,960 Speaker 1: the late nineteen eighties, scientists finally managed to propagate the 380 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,800 Speaker 1: plant and raise seedlings. Those seedlings, once they reached a 381 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:37,840 Speaker 1: certain level of growth, were then planted at various other 382 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:41,080 Speaker 1: secret sites in Northern England. Although a lot of them 383 00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 1: did not live to maturation, the few that did survive 384 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,800 Speaker 1: had to be protected during the flowering season, just as 385 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:52,199 Speaker 1: that parent plant had. Eventually, a nature reserve in Lancashire 386 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,560 Speaker 1: was able to foster a Lady Slipper orchid population that 387 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,400 Speaker 1: was hardy enough that it is now open to visitors, 388 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 1: So that location of the first one is still secret 389 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 1: to most people. So there's a real problem in the 390 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:09,119 Speaker 1: ongoing obsession with orchids. Apart from all the problems that 391 00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 1: we've already been talking about of you know, yeah, in 392 00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 1: the modern era, there are still people that hunt for orchids. 393 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 1: If you saw the movie adaptation or read the book 394 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: it was adapted from, The Orchid Thief, there are still 395 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,400 Speaker 1: people that trade in this although adaptation, i should say, 396 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:29,399 Speaker 1: is a very very loose adaptation of that book. Yeah, So, 397 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,119 Speaker 1: apart from all the many problems we've already talked about, 398 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 1: the problem that's keeping botanists from having the fullest range 399 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: of information about orchids. Today is secrecy. When plants are 400 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,400 Speaker 1: discovered that are believed to be valuable, often they're kept 401 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:48,720 Speaker 1: totally secret and the interest of profit over science. Today's 402 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: orchid industry is estimated to be a nine billion dollar 403 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,720 Speaker 1: business annually, and there are, as i said, still people 404 00:23:55,760 --> 00:24:00,159 Speaker 1: who smuggle orchids, but that too is problematic outside of 405 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,960 Speaker 1: any issues of morality or financial ethics. And that's because 406 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:07,120 Speaker 1: most orchids evolved in ways that require, as we mentioned earlier, 407 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 1: very specific pollinators. It's not like you could take any 408 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 1: given orchid and just kind of put it in with 409 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: bees and let nature work it out. Not all orchids 410 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,320 Speaker 1: would work that way, so it's often difficult even for 411 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: botanists to properly replicate the needs of these plants. So 412 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,520 Speaker 1: collectors who are still willing to pay top dollar for 413 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: one that is collected from the wild that is maybe 414 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: rare and exotic, may in fact doom those very plants 415 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,600 Speaker 1: that they value so highly because care is so difficult 416 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: that not everybody can manage it. Yeah, but it also 417 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:43,280 Speaker 1: means that things that threaten their pollinators threaten the plants too. 418 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: It's all tied together. Yes, there are a lot of 419 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,960 Speaker 1: stories if you start digging about, like ecological whoopsie daisies 420 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: that happen when people are trying to collect an orchid, 421 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:58,399 Speaker 1: or there's an orchid that comes and goes. I read 422 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,120 Speaker 1: one story, and I I did not write it down, 423 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: so I don't have the details of its location exactly correct. 424 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: But a botanist had seen this orchid and then had 425 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: gone back to the place that it was some years 426 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,760 Speaker 1: later to study it some more, and it wasn't there anymore. 427 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,760 Speaker 1: And they had found out from a local that there 428 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 1: was a fire, and that there were frequent fires because 429 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,120 Speaker 1: of some industrialization in this swampland, And so they got 430 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,880 Speaker 1: all kinds of activism going and sort of like stopped 431 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,479 Speaker 1: the industrial stuff that was causing those fires. And then 432 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,119 Speaker 1: it turned out that that particular orchid had evolved in 433 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,439 Speaker 1: a way that it needed a fire in its cycle 434 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:40,560 Speaker 1: every certain number of years. So even when we try 435 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,400 Speaker 1: to intercede in an ecologically sound way, sometimes it does 436 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:50,160 Speaker 1: not work with whatever orchid is being examined or desired well. 437 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:51,879 Speaker 1: And of course, the day you do not need to 438 00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:54,960 Speaker 1: travel all over the world to get an orchid. You 439 00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: can buy them at the store. You can order all 440 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,840 Speaker 1: kinds of them online at for a wide variety of 441 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,240 Speaker 1: price points. Some of them are still going to cost 442 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,880 Speaker 1: you several thousand dollars though, Yeah, I mean, it's again 443 00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,520 Speaker 1: fascinating to me the range that you can get an 444 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:16,760 Speaker 1: orchid for fifteen bucks if you're very low end, all 445 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: the way up to you know, many thousands of dollars. Also, 446 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:22,359 Speaker 1: I just as a coda, wanted to mention that just 447 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: in case you think you are not an orchid fan, 448 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:27,000 Speaker 1: or you're not into them, or you don't cross paths 449 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,119 Speaker 1: with them, next time you bite into a delicious slice 450 00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:33,640 Speaker 1: of cake or a cookie, you might want to think 451 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: of orchids, because that's where vanilla comes from, and vanilla 452 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,359 Speaker 1: is delicious and amazing. It is those those brown flecks 453 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,000 Speaker 1: you see in like French usually not French vanilla, because 454 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,720 Speaker 1: that's that's refined in a way that you don't see 455 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: the brown flex but in like natural vanilla things, those 456 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: little brown flex those are orchid seeds and they are delicious. 457 00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,160 Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If 458 00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: you'd like to send us a note, our email addresses 459 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:12,080 Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com and you can subscribe 460 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,199 Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or 461 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,199 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.