The MGS Forum

Plant identification => Plant identification => Topic started by: Hilary on January 28, 2018, 02:41:10 PM

Title: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Hilary on January 28, 2018, 02:41:10 PM

This flower is on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
All the other stamps in the series are named in the catalogue.
I know this plant  probably does  not grow in areas with a Mediterranean climate but someone must know its name

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Fermi on January 28, 2018, 03:31:59 PM

Hi Hilary,
it may be a Saussurea such as S. obvallata.
Here's a link to a site with a stamp from India featuring it!
http://www.nainitaltourism.com/Brahma-Kamal-Saussurea-State-Flower-Uttarakhand-Uttaranchal.html (http://www.nainitaltourism.com/Brahma-Kamal-Saussurea-State-Flower-Uttarakhand-Uttaranchal.html)
cheers
fermi

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Hilary on January 30, 2018, 08:30:10 AM

Fermi, many thanks for the help.
I can see I am going to spend many happy hours reading about high mountain plants in Kyrgyzstan.
if only I could read the name of the plant written down the side of the stamp

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Alisdair on January 30, 2018, 10:57:19 AM

Hilary, I think you were at the talk given by Robin Lane-Fox on Kyrgyzstan mountain flowers, at the 2016 MGS AGM? To remind you, here's a picture of Robin on that trip, with Harriet Rix; and Harriet's photo of some of the Kyrgyzstan flowers that she pressed - no Saussurea, though!

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Hilary on January 30, 2018, 01:44:10 PM

I found the talk by Robin Lane-Fox on the internet but have not re read it yet.
Hoping there might be a clue to the mystery flower.
Trollius altaicus looked possible but the leaves were wrong, I think

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: JTh on January 30, 2018, 02:39:49 PM

I tried to make a search for the le tters on the stamp, KӨK БАШ, Google translate first suggested KÖK HEAD, which didn't make much sense. Somewhere I recognised the letters in parenthesis in a text in Kirghiz, and when I used Google to translate this, it was translated as piles and the text was about hemorrhoids; I have a feeling that is not the name of the flower. I agree with Fermi that it looks more like Saussurea than Trollius.

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Hilary on January 31, 2018, 07:41:56 AM

JTh,
many thanks for the attempt at reading the writing on the stamp.
I don't think we have a Russian dictionary but you never know, it is a few years since I have looked at that particular shelf, dictionaries which belonged to my father - in- law, in the cupboard

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: oron peri on February 04, 2018, 06:20:08 AM

It is  Saussurea involucrata

Title: Re: Flower on a stamp from Kyrgyzstan
Post by: Hilary on February 04, 2018, 06:40:14 AM

Oron,
Many thanks. The mystery now solved