1998 32c Flowering Trees: Blue Paloverde

US #3194
1998 Blue Paloverde

• From set picturing flowering trees from different geographical regions
• Issued the day before spring
• Features original paintings made to look like old prints
  
  

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Flowering Trees
Value:  32¢, first Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue:  March 19, 1998
First Day City:  New York, New York
Quantity Issued:  50,000,000
Printed by:  Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method:  Offset, microprinting
Format:  Pane of 20
Perforations:  Die Cut 11.3

Why the stamp was issued:  This is part of a set of stamps featuring five flowering trees from different regions of North America.

About the stamp design:  John Dawson, a wildlife and nature artist created five original paintings in the style of old-fashioned botanical prints.  Each stamp shows the tree’s blossom, leaves, stem, and fruit.  The Latin and English names are at the bottom of the stamp.

Special design details:  Each stamp contains a microprinted “USPS” hidden within the design.  On the blue paloverde stamp, it is on an unopened blossom on the right side of the flower.

First Day City:  The Flowering Trees stamps were dedicated during the opening of the Postage Stamp Mega-Event held in New York City.

About the Flowering Trees set:  The set includes flowering trees found in different areas of the US.  The Southern magnolia is found along the coastal plains of the southeastern US.  The blue paloverde prefers the dry climate of the American Southwest.  The yellow poplar is the only tulip tree native to North America.  It grows in the East and Midwest.  As the name suggests, the prairie crab apple is found in the prairies of the Midwest.  The fifth tree is the Pacific dogwood, which grows in the river bottomlands and mountain slopes in the West.

History the stamp represents:  Named for the blue-green color of its trunk, the blue paloverde (Cercidium floridum) grows in the dry regions of the southwestern United States, from central Arizona to southern California, and in the northwestern part of Mexico.  This tree can be found along dry streambeds and valleys, on lower slopes of desert grasslands, and along the sides of desert canyons.  In these places, the paloverde is useful in slowing erosion because the roots help hold dry, loose soil together.

The paloverde tree is a member of the pea family.  It produces pods that are about three inches long and contain two or three seeds.  These seed are a familiar food source for the Pima and Papago Indians of Arizona.  The young pods can be eaten like beans, or the seeds can be dried and ground into meal.  Mountain sheep, deer, and smaller mammals also eat the seeds from this tree, along with the twigs and leaves.
The blue paloverde grows from 15 to 30 feet tall.  It is a bushy tree that usually has a short, wide trunk and intricate, thorny branches.  Its small green leaves begin to open in March and drop by late summer, after the rainy season.  The tree bears clusters of bright yellow flowers in May, followed by the long, narrow pods, which are yellowish-brown in color.