A region of western Asia, in what is now Iraq, known as the âcradle of civilization.â Western writing first developed there, done with sticks on clay tablets. Agricultural organization on a large scale also began in Mesopotamia, along with work in bronze and iron (see Bronze Age and Iron Age).
Analysis: The photo is real â this orchid does exist, and the colorful center of the flower does resemble the face of a monkey or baboon â but the captions above are only semi-correct. The actual species name of the flower is Dracula gigas (Dracula meaning dragon, gigas meaning giant), not, as claimed above, Dracula simia.
Orchid smuggling is one part of the epidemic of plant and wildlife smuggling, with an illegal commercial trade totaling $5 billion in 1994 (Schevitz, p. C2). Besides orchids, other plants that are illegally traded include threatened or endangered cacti and carnivorous plants.(see PLANT case). In the past, authorities in the West have usually turned a blind eye to plant smuggling because they had more serious issues to deal with.owever, the majority of orchids grow in warm climates. In the United States, orchids are most likely to be found in Hawaii and Florida. Most internationally traded orchids come from the tropical nations of Asia or South America, such as India, Thailand, China, Singapore, Madagascar, Brazil, and Guatemala.