Sharing A High-Res Shot Of China 2025-15: The Endangered Putuo Hornbeam Stamp

Hello friends,

As promised in my introduction, I would love to share one of my recent macro stamp photography works with you all.

This is the 4th stamp from the "Ancient and Famous Trees" (gu shu ming mu) series issued by China Post in August 2025 (Serial number: 2025-15). The stamp features the famous "Putuo Hornbeam" (pu tuo e er li) located on Putuo Mountain, Zhejiang Province.

What makes this tree extraordinary is that it is a critically endangered species, and currently, there is only ONE single wild tree left in the entire world!

I used my macro setup to capture the beautiful printing details. I am uploading both the full stamp image and a cropped close-up to show the exquisite textures of the leaves, the trunk, and the fine lines of the engraving craft.

I hope you enjoy these macro details. Would love to hear your thoughts!

Best regards,
chinastampraw

How did it become the only tree left?

Great looking photos, you really captured the smallest details.

Thank you both for the kind comments!

To Christopherjohn:
I am so glad you enjoyed the macro details! I will keep sharing more high-res stamp photos in the future.

To rogdcam:
That is a wonderful question! The Putuo Hornbeam became the last wild tree due to a combination of factors:
1. It is native only to Putuo Island, meaning its original habitat was extremely limited.
2. Its natural reproduction is very difficult. The male and female flowers on the same tree bloom at different times, so the window for successful wind pollination is extremely short (only a few days).
3. In the past, human activities and deforestation on the island destroyed most of its habitat, leaving just this single surviving tree (which is now around 250 years old and strictly protected).

Fortunately, Chinese botanists have successfully cloned it via tissue culture and cuttings, so thousands of artificial saplings have been planted now, but the original wild one remains unique!

Thank you for sharing, both the images and the history are very nice. I will look forward to seeing more.

A problem I face with photographing my stamps is that due to the shallow depth of field, the outer edges of the perforations become a little blurred. You have managed to get not just the centre of the stamp, but even the perforations in razor sharp focus. Great work!

Is the original one now too old to reproduce? Or does it need another tree?

Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback and interesting comments! I'm thrilled to share these pieces with this amazing community.

@bfranton - I really appreciate your kind words! I enjoy diving into the philatelic history behind these rare designs. More deep dives and sharp images are definitely on the way.

@red_apechu - You hit the exact technical challenge of stamp photography! To overcome that shallow depth of field and get those outer perforations in razor-sharp focus, I used an extreme macro lens with a locked narrow aperture and custom diffuse studio lighting to ensure edge-to-edge pixel sharpness.

@eyeonwall - Haha, that is a brilliant way to put it! These classic physical engravings certainly hold a historical texture that modern materials just cannot replicate. That is exactly why I wanted to freeze their paper fibers and oil ink lines in high-resolution digital format before they age any further.

For anyone who wants to check out the pixel-level details or analyze the uncompressed camera-native textures, I have archived a sample collection of 20 high-res pieces on my independent gallery page. The 14-bit RAW (NEF) and original JPG files are entirely free to download for research or design reference here: https://chinastampraw.netlify.app

Thanks again for the warm welcome and great laughs, happy collecting!