| Author | Message | ||
     Hideka Kobayashi Rating: N/A |
The last one. Well, you can buy Polyrrhiza lindenii from Oak Hill cheap  (Footage of Brandon and Braver; orchids) BRAVER: (Voiceover) Richard Brandon is a former New York actor who retired to Florida nine years ago, intending to fish, but one orchid led to another. Mr. BRANDON: This is dendrobium roi takunaga. BRAVER: Oh, just that, huh? Mr. BRANDON: That's it. BRAVER: (Voiceover) Soon he was creating a whole orchid habitat on his property. Mr. BRANDON: Initially, I wire them onto the trees to hold them in place, and then nature takes its course, because this is how they grow naturally. BRAVER: Is there any particular orchid that you really want to acquire that you haven't been able to get yet? Mr. BRANDON: Mm, the ghost orchid. (Footage of ghost orchid; the book, "The Orchid Thief") BRAVER: (Voiceover) Ah, yes, the rare and beautiful ghost orchid, an endangered species made famous by Susan Orlean's book, "The Orchid Thief." (Excerpt from "Adaptation") BRAVER: (Voiceover) It was turned into the film "Adaptation." Chris Cooper played John Laroche, who stole ghost orchids from the Fakahatchee Swamp... (Excerpt from "Adaptation") BRAVER: (Voiceover) ...hoping to be the first to reproduce them in a nursery. (Footage of Braver and group wading through swamp) Mr. OWEN: If he wanted to work with us, we could have allowed him to take a seed pod. (Footage of replanted orchid; Braver and group wading through swamp) BRAVER: (Voiceover) When Laroche was arrested, biologist Mike Owen was called in to put the stolen plants, including this one, back in the swamp. Is it thriving? Is it going to make it? Mr. OWEN: Well, it has survived these now nine years, but it's not thriving. BRAVER: (Voiceover) In fact, you can barely see this leafless plant that clamps its roots on a tree and lives off air and light. No one knows exactly why a ghost orchid can thrive in one particular spot and not in another, which is why they are so hard to find. Mr. OWEN: Here--this is a ghost orchid. BRAVER: (Voiceover) The day we spent in the swamp, there wasn't a ghost orchid blossom in sight. They only bloom once a year. Mr. BUTCHER: One year, there was only three that bloomed. I mean, that's not very many plants to--to keep a species going. (Footage of Butcher; photograph of ghost orchid) BRAVER: (Voiceover) But, luckily, awhile back, Clyde Butcher captured one on film, so that all of us can see that most rare, precious and mysterious bloom, the ghost orchid, and we can indulge ourselves in a bit of orchid mania. (Footage of newspaper article) OSGOOD: (Voiceover) Next, a controversy in black and white. (Announcements) LOAD-DATE: May 26, 2003 (Message edited by kobayashi on August 09, 2003) |