The Reading Warehouse

"Orchidelirium" is a hothouse hybrid of fact and fiction, research and hypothesis, scent and sex. The name of the flower itself is derived from the Greek word ? "?orchis?" meaning testis. Through their resemblance to human and animal sexual organs, orchids were thought to stimulate lust. In fact, it was long believed that the flowers sprang from the spilled semen of mating animals. For the Victorian Alice O'Keefe, who established one of America's great collections of orchids (before venturing into flora introduction), the delirium leads to environmental disaster. For Frances O'Keefe, the hothouse her ancestry built and which she fiercely protects, will once again fill with the flower of legend—and orchidelirium.