The biggest black market you’ve never heard of is blooming right under your nose. Whether it’s a 4,000-pound cactus shoveled from the Arizona desert or delicate orchids pinched from the tangled jungle of Peru, rare plants are at the center of a rapidly growing and lucrative world of crime. Hosted by plant expert Summer Rayne Oakes, Bad Seeds plunges straight into it, featuring the buyers, the sellers, the obsessives, and those who came face-to-face with the criminals behind an underworld few know exist.
Episode 4: Charming Personalities
In the Lonely Planet Guide, the editors provide one simple admonishment to travelers considering a journey to Panama’s Darien Gap: “Don’t even think about it!” But that didn’t deter English orchid enthusiast Tom Hart Dyke, who plunged into the forest in 2000 to see orchids – but ended up spending ten months in captivity.
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