Plant Crimes Summary and Analysis

Plant poaching is good business in south Florida; one of Tom Fennell's neighbors had had twenty-thousand-dollars worth of bell peppers stolen from his fields and has vowed to never plant them again. Susan looks up the number of times plants are stolen in south Florida and finds a high number of instances. She begins to collect instances of local and international plant crimes.

Laroche's own plant crimes are unusual but not unrivaled. All of the major swamps have been plundered by orchid hunters over the years. Since so many hunters and tourists have taken plants and orchids from the swamps during their visits over the years, there are now laws prohibiting taking any living thing from these protected areas. Still, poachers come for the plants, alligators and deer that live in this area.

A few days after Susan meets...