Alpine flowers

Following the great success obtained in the past by Stefan Erne’s self-adhesive stamps with designs based on butterflies and garden flowers, this informal series is being continued with the “Alpine flowers” issue. For it the Chiltern gentian, the Alpine forget-me-not and the Hairy Alpine rose have been depicted.

The “Chiltern gentian”, Gentiana rhaetica (face value CHF 1.00) is a rose-pink plant which grows up to 40 cm in height and is in flower from May to October on pastures and meadows at altitudes up to about 2,600 m above sea-level. This plant, also called German Enzian, prefers loamy, calcareous soils and is widespread in central Europe. The perennial “Alpine forget-me-not”, Myosotis alpestris (face value CHF 1.90) belongs to the borage family and is at home between 1,300 and 3,000 m above sea-level on moist ground, grassy areas, scree beds and natural meadows in the mountain ranges of Europe, Asia and North America.

When they come into flower the blooms are lilac-coloured; later they turn an intense sky-blue, as is typical for members of the borage family. The “Hairy Alpine rose”, Rhododendron hirsutum (face value CHF 4.00), also called just “Alpine rose” or “rockrose”, is an evergreen shrub with distinctly ciliolate leaves and vibrantly bright-red flowers in grape-like clusters. It blooms from May to July and can grow to a height of up to a metre. The Hairy Alpine rose occurs principally in the Northern and Southern Limestone Alps at altitudes between 600 and 2,500 m above sea-level and is found there on limestone debris, scree and rocky slopes and also in thinly-growing pine and mountain-pine forests. Beautiful as it is for the mountain walker to look at, it can also be dangerous. Like so many rhododendron species it is highly poisonous for both humans and animals.