South West Africa : The Welwitschia.

A STRANGE PLANT.

One of the world's most peculiar plants is depicted on the 10/- stamps of South West Africa.

This is the Welwitschia mirabilis or Tumboa plant which has but two leaves that last it for the period of its life. The leaves are of great thickness and rise from two deep grooves in the trunk. They increase in size each year and in the older specimens are upwards of six feet in length.
The plant produces bright scarlet cones clustered at the top of the trunk which is just a few inches above the ground. As there are only a comparatively few Welwitschias in existence, even though under normal conditions they live for a hundred years, the plants are protected by special legislation.

And how about the bunga bangkai (Amorphophallus titanum) or 'corpse flower' of Sumatra?

Rodster, how did you get that photo of my compost pile way in the back of my yard?

well, how about it? does it appear on a stamp?
if not, it does not belong in this exclusive horribilis list.

BeeSee,
may I point out, your back garden needs watering.
...or are you a meercat ?

What a silly question, Rod.
You should know that everything in on stamps. LOL







Images courtesy of freestampcalalogue.com


Steve

Poooooh! jeepers Steve,
I can smell it from here, it honks!
(can't see the corpse though)

Just smells like one

Incidentally, according to Stevens & Schmidgall-Tellings' Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary '... kembang bunga bangkai - k(ind) o(f) flower with edible tuber'. They don't describe the flavour, though. Doubtless interesting.

While on the subject, have Indonesia or Malaysia shown my favourite vegetable petai (Parkia speciosa) on a stamp? And if not, why not?

I think this might be it. The colour looks wrong and I can't read the name, other than that it looks right.




Steve

Bravo, Steve! The colour of the seed pods is right, but I wouldn't care to eat the seeds if they were that yellow colour. They should be a nice pale green.

BTW, Stevens & Schmidgall-Tellings define petai as 'a smelly, edible bean'. Clearly not devotees ...

Indeed,
commonly referred to as the "stink bean"

Not by me. Life without petai would be barely worth living - not really worth living at all. You haven't lived until you've consumed a plate of sambal goreng petai. And life after you've consumed a plate will be intolerable until your next plate.

I'll keep alert for those,
my wife sometimes stores a green vegetable that smells
like it is decomposing, but I think it is a green leafy
vegetable, not a bean, other wise I would have recognised it.
Rather than possibly getting hooked, I shall leave
you to your "stink beans" thank you very much.
We do eat black "1000 year old eggs" that are quite nice,
one of the more challenging smells may be met in Thailand
in the vats where they make their famous fish sauce.

For those that may not be aware, history's fascination
with spices from the East, that drove exploration,
were driven by europe's seasons.
During winter in europe, a lot of the animals would perish
due to the lack of winter feed, so they were slaughtered, and
the preservation of meat drove the inatiable desire for
the benefits of the varied spices to improve longevity of
preservation and taste.
The profits were so huge, a trader may lose 4 ships
out of 5, and if the fifth made it home successfully,
the profit would cover the preceding 4.
At one stage pepper was more valuable than gold.

Since time began, the shine of discovery is always followed
closely by the shadow of big business.

Another stamp from South West Africa - 2nd Definitive issue.
Value : R1
Date of Issue : 1973 1st September
Perf 11.5 x 12.5



Wikipedia article on the plant - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welwitschia

Excellent Stampstudy not in my collection.
should also be known as the "trick plant"
you would swear there was more than 2 leaves.

A few more

Namibia -
Date of Issue: 2000 21 June
Perf : 13.5



Angola - 413-416




Definately a trick plant --- Imagine living to 2000 years!

Goodness, who would have thought so many?
As there is no collective noun for Welwitschias
I propose "A dreadlock of Welwitschias" :)

I wonder how they establish age of these fellows
if, indeed, they live to 2000.

Thinking you may have been stretching the truth
I checked wiki for oldest plant...omigosh!

Another old sucker?
In Tasmania, we have the Kings Holly which is another sterile plant with no flowers, no seeds. The Kings Holly reproduces by root suckering and produces one big plant.

How big? 1-2 kilometers. How old? Estimated at 43,000 years, by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service
A tree named "methusela" in california 4,300 years