10 September 2010

US Postal Service issues a stamp featuring a gesneriad

The United States Postal Service, as part of a 12-year series on the "Nature of America", has issued "Hawaiian Rain Forest" featuring 24 native Hawaiian species of plants and animals. Click the link below to see and read more:

USPS Nature of America: Hawaiian Rain Forest

Among the species featured, a Cyrtandra platyphylla (Gesneriaceae) is prominently displayed near the middle of the sheet.

Here's a link to a few actual photographs of the species, taken by Warren Wagner (Smithsonian):

Cyrtandra platyphylla

Cyrtandra is the largest genus in the Gesneriaceae (~600 species) and is particularly diverse in Hawaii, with 58 recognized species native to this archipelago (Wagner, Clark and Roalson, in prep.).