Native orchids - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1976 - 25 Pfennig

Native Orchids The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic publishes six multi-colored special postal stamps depicting native orchids. NATURE RESPONSIBILITY - ORCHIDS With more than 20,000 species, orchids are one of the richest and most diverse plant families in the world. Since time immemorial, they claim the special interest of countless nature lovers because of their beauty and colourfulness. Their main area of ​​distribution are the tropics and subtropics, where they mainly occur as tree-breakers (epiphytes). In temperate climates, including Europe, they are already reaching the limit of their distribution and are exclusively soil dwellers. Their share of the total number of European plant species reaches just under 2 percent. Here they are mainly bound to locations that were created by limited human intervention and management forms. This results in the particular problem of their conservation in Europe in connection with the worldwide efforts to protect them, in which the GDR, in which as one of the few countries without exception all orchids are protected, occupies a leading position in the world. 25-pfennig value: Red Spitzorchis - Anacamptis pyramidalis (L.) L. C. RICH. The heat- and calf-loving, 25 to 70 cm high, bright light to deep red blooming, beautiful, forming in the autumn winter leaves species occurs in meager semi-arid grass and Wechselfeuchten pipe grass and huckleback meadows. It occupies a wide area covering the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea region, the Balkan Peninsula, Western and Central Europe and still reaches the Baltic Sea region in the USSR, the GDR (formerly) and southern Scandinavia. The number of species found in this orchid species, which is dependent on butterfly pollination, is declining sharply in Central Europe. In the GDR, it requires particularly careful protection as an endangered species.