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One man’s mission to save the great British orchid

The Orchid Outlaw Ben Jacob John Murray £20 )))))

For years, my grandmother was proud of a tall and beautiful orchid that she kept in perpetual flower at her flat in Hammersmith. Then she died, and we discovered that the orchid was made of plastic, but she’d never noticed.

That story, roughly, accounts for my lack of passion for orchids, which for years have seemed to me the type of frigid houseplant you buy in an ugly pot at Marks & Sparks. But my mind has been changed by Ben Jacob’s book, which persuasively argues that orchids are fascinating plants that deserve our high regard – and protection.

A university lecturer, Jacob became interested in orchids as a child and then, as an adult, travelled around the world tracking down exotic species. But when a back injury grounded him in England, he saw a bee orchid in his parents’ garden – and realised he’d overlooked native orchids in favour of their foreign cousins.

Part memoir, part natural history book, The Orchid Outlaw records Jacob’s attempts to rescue orchids at risk of destruction – by strimmers, often, or by bulldozers preparing the ground for new houses. Initially, he simply digs up vulnerable orchids and replants them elsewhere, but when that doesn’t work out, he takes to raising orchids from seed himself.

The author presents himself as a kind of guerrilla plant superhero who is merely doing his bit. This can grate, as you wonder how much the stretched police would really care about his activities. And some readers may find the book depressing – orchids were once abundant in Britain but are now dying out, and their loss is set out in painful detail here.

Still, the book is written with a skip and drama, and will leave you furious that these strange and delicate plants have been so neglected.

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2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

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