My postage stamp garden of unusual herbs & plants

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Our tryst with health-care, and use of plants as healers is long. While more well developed health systems used these in their formulary, remote and untouched communities also had their unique herbal remedies. In this blog we explore the less known plants, as well as nations that showcase these in their postage stamps.

Pacific

Tuvalu is an island nation of about 12,000 people, in Pacific ocean. Probably earliest settlers came to these islands more than 2000 years ago. Settlers reached Marshall islands, another nation in the Pacific even earlier. World stumbled on them in the late 1500s, and had more frequent contact only in the 1800s. More than 2000 kms of sea seprates both the island-nations. These archepelagoes are now home to both indigenous as well as imported medicinal plants. I stumbled on a postage-stamp set from each of these islands. While all four plants in the Tuvalu set are imported (probably by its European settlers), all four on the Marshall Island set are indigenous. Please see the panel below and its hyperlinks to know about them.

Central Africa

Both Pacific islands, as well as coastal Africa was either a stopover for the explorers, or a human resource hunting ground for their more lucrative colonies. Quest to explore and colonise central parts of Africa really started in 1880s and completed by 1913.

As we colonised Africa, discovered new plants. Some of them for wood, and others for medicinal use or even toxins. Please see three panels below for such plants on postage stamps from Gambia and Rwanda. Like elsewhere in the world, populations used each plant for a variety of medicinal uses.

A bouquet from Azores

Azores are a group of islands in the Atlantic. They lie about 1400km west of Lisbon. Around 1450s, the islands were inhabited by the Portuguese, who also discovered enormous biodiversity. In 1981, Portugal issued a set of twelve postage stamps, on various plant species found on this archipelago. The following two panels, lists this set. These plants are not necessarily medicinal.

World of Taste

South East Asia is indeed a world of taste. Spices from India, China, and its own islands adds flavour to all the culinary. Many ingredients in this culinary are medicinal. Postage stamps from Thailand, as well as Singapore. Pepper, Chlli, Turmeric, and Basil feature in the stamp set from Thailand. On the other hand Singapore set features Turmeric, Tamarind, Star Anise, Coriander and Cinnamon. All these are common spices in Indian cooking as well.

A postage stamp from Malaysia features Bitter bean. This is also a unique culinary ingredient in South East Asia, as well as North Eastern India. We know this plant as Yongchak, in Manipur, and Zwangtah in Mizoram. This plant also has a vriety of medicinal uses.

Back to Europe

Mandrake, Henbane, Dhatura and Belladona are traditional healing plants in Europe and Asia. All four are used either as pain relievers, to induce sleep, and also as intoxicants. There are numerous myths surrounding mandrake. “Its roots resemble human figures, and it cries a lot when uprooted” This plant also features prominently in Harry Potter’s syllabus at Hogwarts.

So in this last blog-post of 2023, and presumably the last in the series of medicinal plants lets enjoy the following two stamp-bouquets – from Yugoslavia and Germany. These are plants that heal, and flowers that make us feel good.

We donot know when tradition of flowers as a gift actually started. Probably it is English, or rather French. At some point of time, we extended the tradition to those recovering from an illness. A symbol of love, affection, care and support. Regardless of all these emotions, modern healthcare systems do-not seem to like flowers and plants. Probably concerns about safety, hygiene and infection rank higher than soft-floral-communication skills of yester-years.