The Orchid Thief

Laroche is the book’s main character, and while there are other recurring characters who support the storyline, without Laroche there is no story. It was his arrest and trial that set in motion Orlean’s interest in orchids, anchoring the narrative. Orlean takes the opportunity to explore some tangents, but she keeps the focus on Laroche and his trial.

She begins the book with him in Chapter 1 and ends it with him as well in the last chapter. In addition, the other people and events she describes are refracted through his character. For instance, other orchid growers such Tom Fennell are described in a way that invites comparison with Laroche and places him in the context of the world he inhabited. Orlean describes Laroche as a bit of an eccentric in the world at large and in the plant community in particular, although there are many others who share his orchid obsession.

Laroche was in his early 30s when Orlean met him. His eccentricity comes through in Orlean’s description, both in how he looks and in how he acts. The first paragraph of the book describes his appearance as “sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth” with “the posture of al dente spaghetti” (3). He was unreliable and changeable, but whenever the author was ready to be dismissive, he would surprise her by doing something uncharacteristic. He had been a serial collector since childhood, in that he would find an interest to lock his focus on to the exclusion of everything else, but then for various reasons drop it completely and never look back. He would then take up another interest with the same level of fervor that he applied to the former.

Orlean depicts Laroche as a complex figure, not just as a one-dimensional eccentric. People seemed to like him, which amazed Orlean. He was odd-looking, could be peevish, and acted with few manners. She thought people were drawn to him because he took their concerns seriously and “made people feel that they were innately able to do the right thing” (98). In addition, though on the surface he had morally questionable schemes meant to profit only himself, he had his own peculiar moral code. His act of stealing endangered flowers from the Fakahatchee Preserve was primarily intended to enrich himself and the Seminole Tribe. They would clone the ghost orchid and make millions in the process. On the face of it, it was a story of greed.

In Laroche’s telling, however, while he was—yes—looking to profit, his simultaneous motive was to protect the ghost orchid in the future. His cloning of the plant would cancel out the need to poach it, since it would be readily available commercially. At the same time, he intended to shame the Florida state legislature into closing the legal loopholes he had exploited, thus further protecting wild orchids. Naturally, “he would end up looking like a saint” (27). By the end of the book, Orlean seems to have developed a friendly dynamic with Laroche, suggesting that she, too, ended up liking him in her own way.