{"product_id":"the-scent-of-scandal-greed-betrayal-and-the-worlds-most-beautiful-orchid","title":"Scent of Scandal","description":"After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, \u003cem\u003ePhragmipedium kovachii\u003c\/em\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, USA, 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of \u003cem\u003ePhrag. Kovachii\u003c\/em\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Scent of Scandal\u003c\/em\u003e unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's \u003cem\u003eThe Orchid Thief\u003c\/em\u003e or the film \u003cem\u003eAdaptation\u003c\/em\u003e. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed--with beauty, with profit, with fame--that they will ignore everything, even the law.","brand":"University Press of Florida","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":32019950927955,"sku":"","price":21.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780813060569_7b248bdd-a0cb-4c5d-ba08-8e16c86854a8.jpg?v=1780114544","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/the-scent-of-scandal-greed-betrayal-and-the-worlds-most-beautiful-orchid","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}