Bauhinia galpinii

Venda, Mutale · 1984-06-21

Official

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front

Cachet: The cachet on this cover shows a flowering branch of Bauhinia galpinii, its striking orange red flowers with narrow curled petals set against rounded green leaves. The illustration is detailed and botanical in style, capturing the plant's distinctive claw shaped blooms in full colour. The bilingual identification "Bauhinia galpinii / Mutswiriri" appears beneath the illustration, giving both the scientific and Venda names for the plant. A small Venda crest and the series marking "1.20 (3)" sit alongside it in the lower corner. Four stamps fill the top right corner in a block, each illustrated by Dick Findlay and showing a different tree species native to Venda, from Afzelia quanzensis to Acacia sieberana. Two Mutale postmarks, each featuring the outline of a baobab tree, cancel the stamps.

Info card

The info card for this cover couldn't be transcribed since the envelope is sealed shut.

Additional information

This cover is postmarked on 21 June 1984 in Mutale. It carries a set of four Venda stamps illustrated by Dick Findlay, each depicting a tree species found across the territory's varied landscape. The cachet's featured plant, Bauhinia galpinii, is known locally as Mutswiriri and produces its vivid orange red flowers over an unusually long season, often blooming from midsummer well into autumn.

Theme: Flora

Condition: AverageNoticeable wear or light damage, such as creases, minor soiling, small tears, or light discolouration, but still collectable.

Addressed: No

Signed: No

Estimated value: ~US$0.1

This is a high-level, subjective estimate only, not a professional appraisal.