Wild Orchids of Brunei

I was at the landscape and flower show at the Centrepoint yesterday. Her Majesty graced the occasion and I have to admit the flowers and orchids on display was way out of my league. I did not the flowers could grow to such height and beauty especially the orchids. I was told that once an orchid started to flower, the flowers can last for months under the right weather and conditions.

Anyway, the Philatelic Unit at our Postal Services Department had issued two sets of commemorative stamps on the Wild Orchids of Borneo. The first came out sometime September last year and the first day cover look like this:



According to the leaflet in the first day cover, orchids form one of the most diverse families of flowering plant in the world. They occur all over the globe except at the poles, and are the most abundant in the tropics. Estimates of the size of the family range from 17,500 to some 25,000 species. In the South East Asian region alone specialists think there may be 4,000 to 8,000 species. In Borneo alone, there are perhaps 2,000 species or more, including many that remain to be scientifically identified.

The three orchids highlighted in this Wild Orchid first series are:

Phalaenopsis comucervi (Breda) Bl & Rchb. f.
Bulbophyllum longiflorum Thouars
Dendrobium secundium (Blume) Lindl

and their stamps looked like these:-


For the collectors, the technical details of the stamps:-

Issue: Wild Orchids of Brunei first series

Date of Issue: 9th October 2009

Value: $1.00, 20c, 10c

Designer: Ajihis bin Haji Terawih

Printer: Southern Colour Print New Zealand

Size: 30mm x 30mm

Printing Process: Offset printing

Paper: 110 gsm