50p Blue
Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) - (1,250,000)
55p Lobster-Claws (Heliconia) -
(2,000,000)
60p Lantana (Lantana camara) -
(750,000)
Graphic Artist: Rodine C. Teodoro
First Day Covers:
Manila
Popular Flowers of the Philippines, Definitives, Series 5
50p – Blue Plumbago (Plumbago
Auriculata).
The genus Plumbago comprises 10 species
from the warm climate parts of the world. Etymologically, the name
derives from plumbum,
meaning lead, referring to its use for lead poisoning. Auriculata
means ear-shaped, referring to the leaf base.
Plumbago auriculata is a
semi-climbing, diffusely branched perennial shrub, growing to 2
meters. Leaves are alternate, simple, entire, oblong or oblong-spatulate,
up to 5 centimeters long, with the base tapering to a short petiole.
Flowers are short spikelike racemes; calyx is tubular, shorter than
the slender corolla. Corolla tube measures 2 to 2.5 centimeters
long, five-lobed, azure blue and spreading. Fruit is a capsule that
splits into five parts.
Cultivated in gardens in towns and urban-suburban areas. Used as
border plant, ornamental hedge, or ground cover.
http://www.stuartxchange.org/Plumbago.html
55p – Lobster-Claws (Heliconia).
Heliconia, also popularly known as lobster-claw, wild
plantain or false bird-of-paradise, is a beautiful flower with
multi-color bracts and varied flower structure. Heliconias are
native to the tropical Americas and the Pacific Ocean islands west
to Indonesia. Heliconias
are one of the most colorful and beautiful flowers, the colors of
which are an important source of attraction for the forest
hummingbirds, pollinating the flowers.
Heliconias are grown for their beautiful, brilliant colorful
flowering bracts. Breathtaking and unusual flower heads (bracts)
rise from clumps of banana like leaves, sometimes very large or
slender. Heliconia
flowers are actually highly modified leaves and bracts. The
flowering stems are mostly pendulous. A bract is a leaf structure at
the base of a flower. Heliconia flowers are produced on long, erect
or drooping panicles, and consist of brightly colored waxy bracts,
with small true flowers inside the bracts. Bracts which can be
orange, purple, red, yellow, pink, green, or their combinations.
https://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/aboutflowers/exoticflowers/heliconia
60p – Lantana
(Lantana Camara). There
are 40 species of the genus Lantana.
Some are extremely unpleasant and toxic to livestock.
In some countries, they are considered an invasive weed,
earning the name, "Jekyll and Hyde of plants." It releases chemicals
in its surroundings, preventing germination of the native flora. It
is wont to form dense thickets, spreads very quickly, with one plant
producing as many as 12,000 seeds a year.
Branches are four-sided with re-curved prickles. Leaves are
elliptic, 5 to 9 centimeters long, 3 inches long, pointed at the tip
and rounded at the base and toothed in the margins. Flowers are
pink, orange, yellow, white, lilac and other shades.
A gregarious weed in the Philippines, in settled areas in
thickets and waste places at low and medium altitudes. Certain
varieties are cultivated as a trimmed hedge either alone or with
other shrubs.
http://www.stuartxchange.org/Kantutay