Cactus Flowers 2019 Forever Stamps — Ten Blooms, Double-Sided Booklet of 20

Issue facts

First Day of Issue: February 15, 2019
First Day City: Mesa, Arizona
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset
Format: Double-sided booklet of 20

The set

Ten designs from existing photographs by John P. Schaefer, showing cacti in bloom across a range of species — Opuntia engelmannii, Rebutia minuscula and Echinocereus dasyacanthus among them. This stamp is the scarlet hedgehog cactus in flower. The first-day ceremony was held at the AmeriStamp Expo/ARIPEX show in Mesa, Arizona, a state with no shortage of the subject matter.

Telling cacti apart

They look simple and are not. Spine type, growth habit and a dozen other characteristics determine genus and species, and the differences can be fine enough that DNA testing is the only reliable way to separate two of them.

The scarlet hedgehog

One of four closely related subspecies. Its surface is ribbed into 8 to 11 sections, with 5 to 20 spines per areole, and the stem runs one to two inches thick. The bright red-orange flower is what sets it apart; the other subspecies vary in spines, stem thickness, flower color and skin tone.

That difficulty is much of the appeal for collectors. Learning to read one species against another takes practice, and so does coaxing out the flowers these plants are grown for.

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