Orchidelirium, also called orchidomania or orchid fever, is the name given to the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

of flower madness when collecting and discovering

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowerin ...

s reached extraordinarily high levels. Wealthy orchid fanatics of the 19th century sent explorers and collectors to almost every part of the world in search of new varieties of orchids. Orchidelirium is seen as similar to Dutch

tulip mania Tulip mania ( nl, tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. The major acceleration started in 1634 and then d ...

. Today there still exists some levels of orchid madness, that has some times resulted in

theft Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...

of exceptional orchids among collectors such as the Ghost Orchid.

History

Cultivation of orchids started in England in the 19th century. Orchids were brought to Europe by companies or individuals who had financed collecting expeditions. Initially orchidelirium was a craze limited to the European upper classes. A difficult plant to grow in cold or even temperate climates, the rich spent a fortune on orchids that died in unsuitable conditions, generally with waterlogged roots in stifling hot greenhouses. Commissioned professional collectors would travel for months all over the world in search of rare new species. It was dangerous work, often romanticised. Many died on these expeditions, from misadventure or conflict with locals, and rival orchid-hunters engaged in willfully destructive behaviours, such as urinating on the plants collected by their rivals after stripping the rest of the habitat bare. These expensive expeditions were often shrouded in secrecy and it was not unusual for collectors to spread misleading information about the locations where new orchids were found.Comprehensive Orchid Culture Guid
Orchid History
/ref> New exotic orchids were most often sold at auction in London, fetching extravagant prices. During this time very little was known about the cultivation of orchids and their survival rate was dismal. Through experimentation and by gathering more information on the growing conditions of orchids in their natural habitat, knowledge was slowly being developed and by 1851 B.S. Williams published the first edition of ''The Orchid Grower’s Manual'' (London 1871). Today, international trading of orchids harvested in the wild is now banned by the

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of intern ...

(CITES) adopted in 1973. Still many orchid species are endangered. Orchid smuggling is thought to contribute to the loss of some species of orchid in the wild.

References

Orchid cultivation Orchidology 19th-century fads and trends Victorian era Collecting

History

See also

References