Orchid

Dan Torre is Senior Lecturer in the School of Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His writing and research span a range of topics including design, animation and botanical studies. He is an avid grower and collector of plants, and the author of Cactus (2017) and Carnivorous Plants (2019), both published by Reaktion Books.

Explores the intriguing and multifaceted natural, cultural and social history of the orchid, which makes up around 8 per cent of all the Earth’s flowering species. - Gardens IllustratedDan Torre’s Orchid is a fabulously informative, entertaining, and accessible interdisciplinary monograph drawing on a wide range of sources in horticultural and botanical studies, history, literature, and art. Torre amply displays why orchids are singular plants in many ways and have fascinated humans in many parts of the world . . . Orchid is an enlightening and a gloriously fun read that demonstrates why orchids have fascinated and even obsessed so many . . . The book is beautifully produced with a large number of images, most of them in color. This volume is certain to make the reader want to read all the other volumes in Reaktion’s Botanical series. - H-Neta succinct and engaging introduction to this fascinating area of botanical research with new species being added each year to roughly 28,000 species, growing in trees, on rocks and in the ground and making up 8% of all flowering species on the globe. - LeonardoDan Torre dazzles us again with his compelling blend of science, culture and intrigue in this perfect entrée into the bizarre and intriguing world of orchids. There are tales of dangerous liaisons between plants and animals, erotic orchid iconography in art and all kinds of botanical skulduggery. As this book demonstrates so clearly, orchids are like no other plants (or living things) on this planet, and their stories must be read to be believed. Torre, as always, is the master storyteller. - Tim Entwisle, Director and Chief Executive, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, and author of Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant PunkOrchid by Dan Torre is a wonderful collection of orchid miscellanea. It’s a very well-written, abundantly illustrated, fact-filled foray into the weird and wonderful world of the orchid family. Executed with impressive breadth and depth of knowledge, and respect and sensitivity for the ancient cultural associations between people and the plants, this is a wonderful book . . . Orchid is another great addition to Reaktion Books’ plants-and-people-themed Botanical series. - Nigel Chaffey, Plant Cuttings