Susan Orlean

The narrator and writer of the novel, Susan is also one of the main characters in the book. She reads a newspaper article about John Laroche and three Seminole Indians accused of lifting endangered orchid species from the Fakahatchee Strand in Florida. The story interests her and she decides to travel to Florida to visit John Laroche and find out more about the exclusive world of orchids and the unique club that orchid collectors have founded.

Susan is wholly ignorant of the world of orchids before she begins the story and promises herself that she will not become addicted. Throughout the story, various collectors and nursery owners try to give her an orchid, but she either refuses or searches for someone to give them to instead. By the end, however, even Susan is entranced with the idea of finding a ghost orchid - the same orchids that...