SINGAPORE – Singapore Post (SingPost) will launch a set of four stamps featuring the Republic’s endangered flora on Saturday.
The stamps will be issued to coincide with the 2023 Festival of Biodiversity, which is an annual celebration of the community’s efforts to conserve Singapore’s natural heritage, SingPost said on Thursday.
The festival is jointly organised by the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Biodiversity Roundtable, and will be held at Heartbeat@Bedok on Saturday and Sunday.
Priced from 31 cents to $1.50, the stamps showcase four critically endangered flora species that are on NParks’ species recovery programme, and were all found or rediscovered at Nee Soon Swamp Forest, the only remaining primary freshwater swamp forest in Singapore.
The species are:
1. Lipstick plant (Aeschynanthus pulcher), a popular native ornamental plant that was believed to be extinct in Singapore until its rediscovery in 2013.
2. Fagraea splendens, thought to be extinct in Singapore until its rediscovery in 2010.
3. Singapore Kopsia (Kopsia singapurensis), which was first described by the first scientific director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Henry Nicholas Ridley, from specimens in Singapore in 1894. It was collected in the wild in 1920 and was rediscovered in 2011 when it was collected from the Nee Soon Swamp Forest.
4. Red Salak (Salacca affinis), thought to be extinct in Singapore until its rediscovery in 2011.
Pre-cancelled first day covers with stamps, priced at $5.05, and presentation packs, priced at $6.15, will also be available at all post offices, philatelic stores, and online at shop.singpost.com from Saturday, while stocks last.
