1998 32c Flowering Trees: Pacific Dogwood

US #3197
1998 Pacific Dogwood

• 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 Pacific Dogwood stamp, it is on one of the pedals of the top 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:  The Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) is one of North America’s finest ornamental trees.  Sometimes called the western flowering dogwood, it is similar to the flowering dogwood found in the eastern United States.  Dogwoods are generally small trees.  The Pacific species, though, usually reaches a more majestic height than others, growing as tall as 60 to 75 feet.
The largest of these trees can be found in the Puget Sound basin of northwest Oregon and in the redwood forests of northern California.  The Pacific dogwood is common in bottomlands, moist river soils, and on mountains.  It grows in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, as well as in the mountains of northern and southern California.
This tree bears a small red clustering fruit.  Each of its numerous yellow-green flowers is surrounded by four to six showy white bracts – modified leaves that look like large petals.  These bracts are a significant and beautiful feature of the Pacific dogwood.  The flower buds are visible in winter and open in May.  The tree often flowers a second time late in the summer as the fruits of the first flowering are turning red.  In the fall, the leaves change from green to orange and red in color.