Promoting a topic belonging to the vast field of Flora, Romfilatelia introduces into circulation on Wednesday, August 7, this year, the philatelic issue entitled Segetal plants, consisting of four postage stamps and a First Day Cover.
Under the name of segetal plants, garthered plants that grow spontaneously between the cultivated plants organized on the agricultural plots. To growers they are what we generically know as weeds.
Selected from many species of segetal plants, the postage stamps of the issue feature the images of four well-known plants: the field poppy, cornflower, corn buttercup and common corn-cockle.
Papaver rhoeas L. (Field poppy), illustrated on the stamp with the face value of Lei 2 is an annual herbaceous plant with bristly setaceous stems and leaves. The flowers are solitary, large, mostly red. The fruit is an approximately globular capsule, 1-2 cm long, not covered by bristles. With the same name, field poppy, there are also the species Papaver dubium L. and Papaver hybridum L.
Centaurea cyanus L. (Cornflower), depicted on the stamp with the face value of Lei 3, is an annual species, originally from the central and eastern Mediterranean area. The stem is usually simple, sometimes branched at the top, about 50 cm high, sometimes even higher. The leaves are arranged alternately and covered with long, attached hairs. The flowers are tubular, grouped in inflorescences called calathids. The central ones are usually violet, and the marginal ones are blue.
Ranunculus arvensis L. (Corn buttercup, Cornicei), represented on the stamp with the face value of Lei 6, is an annual species about 20-30 cm high, with quite varied leaves, generally trisectate, the lower ones being long-petiolate and the upper ones being short-petiolate. The flowers are small, up to one centimetre, yellow, with five sepals, five petals, numerous stamens and carpels. The fruits are nut-shaped, each with a small rostrum, covered on the sides and edges with small, conical spines, which distinguishes it from other species of buttercups.
Agrostemma githago L. (Common corn-cockle), illustrated on the stamp with the face value of Lei 25, is native to south-eastern and eastern Europe, as far as Iran. It can reach up to about 1 m in height, although more commonly it is 30-50 cm. It features silky hairy stems and leaves. The leaves are simple, placed opposite. The flowers have a tubular calyx in the lower part, continued in the upper part with five linear, long lacinia. The petals, purple, rarely white, are shorter than the lacinia of the calyx. The fruit is an elongated capsule containing kidney-shaped, black seeds.
Romfilatelia thanks the representatives of the “Dimitrie Brandza” Botanical Garden of the University of Bucharest for the documentary support granted to the development of this issue of postage stamps.
