{"product_id":"the-scent-of-scandal-greed-betrayal-and-the-worlds-most-beautiful-orchid-9780813060569","title":"The Scent of Scandal: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid","description":"\u003cp\u003e2012 Florida Book Awards, Silver Medal for Florida Non-Fiction \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"FANTASTIC. If I did not know most of the main players I would have thought the author had a vivid and twisted imagination.\"--Paul Martin Brown, author of \u003ci\u003eWild Orchids of Florida\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A fascinating true story of obsession, greed, and lust for the unobtainable. Reminds me a great deal of \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e. This rare flower is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of.\"--Ace Atkins, author of \u003ci\u003eDevil's Garden\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eInfamous\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Pittman has captured the extreme competition, unique characters, and general insanity that often typify the orchid world. \u003ci\u003eThe Scent of Scandal \u003c\/i\u003eexemplifies how passion and profit can overrule common sense and the law.\"--Scott Steward, former associate editor, \u003ci\u003eNorth American Native Orchid Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter its Peruvian discovery in 2002, \u003ci\u003ePhragmipedium kovachii\u003c\/i\u003e became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of \u003ci\u003ePhrag. Kovachii\u003c\/i\u003e, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInvestigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife--which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Scent of Scandal\u003c\/i\u003e unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's \u003ci\u003eThe Orchid Thief\u003c\/i\u003e or the film \u003ci\u003eAdaptation\u003c\/i\u003e. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed--with beauty, with profit, with fame--that they will ignore everything, even the law.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCraig Pittman\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning journalist who writes about environmental issues for Florida's largest newspaper, the \u003ci\u003eTampa Bay Times\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the coauthor of \u003ci\u003ePaving Paradise\u003c\/i\u003e and author of \u003ci\u003eManatee Insanity\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Florida","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50503917764882,"sku":"9780813060569","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_076a2bf5-1652-4977-b615-e0aa39ea7fb0.jpg?v=1730804418","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-scent-of-scandal-greed-betrayal-and-the-worlds-most-beautiful-orchid-9780813060569","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}