Rare ghost orchid blooming again

A rare ghost orchid, first spotted in July in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, is blooming again, the Miami Herald reports. The plant is believed to grow naturally only in Cuba, the Bahamas and Southwest Florida. The blossom is white and has thin, spindly stems that virtually disappear against the dark backdrop of the swamps in which it thrives, giving it the appearance of being suspended in midair.

The plant is a central character in Susan Orlean's celebrated The Orchid Thief, a 1998 book about a rogue plant dealer in Southwest Florida who is arrested for taking the rare orchid and other species from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve southwest of Naples.

In a 1995 article in The New Yorker magazine that was the basis for the book, Orlean described plant dealer John Laroche as "a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale-eyed, slouch-shouldered, and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all of his front teeth." Orlean's book tells Laroche's story as an orchid enthusiast who hatches a plan with the cooperation of the Seminole tribe to build a nursery and orchid greenhouse.

Laroche was arrested in 1994 in the Fakahatchee swamp with three Seminole tribesmen with the ghost orchid and other plants they planned to propogate in the nursery. Laroche had discovered a loophole in the law that he believed allowed Seminoles to take the rare plants. Laroche eventually pleaded no contest to charges of removing endangered plants and was fined and barred from the Fakahatchee.

A 2002 film, Adaptation, was based more or less on Orlean's book but was really more about adapting a book to a screenplay than it was about the Orlean's book. Actor Chris Cooper won an Academy Award for best support actor for his role as Laroche in the film. Meryl Streep, who played Orlean in the film, won a nomination for best supporting actress. Nicholas Cage also starred in Adaptation as the screenwriter hired adapt Orlean's book for the screen. The Cage character soon realizes the impossibility of the task, and veers wildly from the original plot.

Orchid photo: Ghost Orchid by Mike Fournier, Pompano Beach, Florida [Photo by Mick Fournier]

Film photo: Chris Cooper as John Laroche in Adaptation. [Columbia Pictures]