Lilac alley

A beautiful cover with a burst of colours and flowers from Poland 🇵🇱 

200 years of the Botanical Garden of the University of Warsaw 

Date of issue : September 10, 2018

Photography : Jaroslaw Delugi 

The spectacularly beautiful Botanic Garden is located at 4 Aleje Ujazdowskie. Established in 1818 by the distinguished botanist Michał Szubert, it is one of the oldest institutions of this type in Poland. It covers 5.16 hectares and its collection includes 5,000 species and varieties of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants.
 
It is divided into subject-related sections: arboretum (trees and shrubs), creepers, various climate plants, therapeutic and practical application plants, roses, Polish lowland flora, decorative plants, plant systematics and greenhouses. The incredible diversity of the collections is one of the main advantages of the garden. Plants typical for the Polish landscape may be admired here although the garden also does not lack in exotic plants such as sub-tropical ferns or American cacti. Publication of a catalogue of seeds (Index seminum et sporarum) contributes to the expansion of the collection through exchange of seeds with botanic gardens all over the world.
 


Definitive - flowers and fruits - Lilac bunch 
Date of issue : 18, December , 2015 

Syringa (lilac) is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family (Oleaceae), native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate areas elsewhere. Lilacs are popular shrubs in parks and gardensthroughout the temperate zone, and several hybrids and numerous cultivars have been developed. Lilacs are often considered to symbolize love. 




Definitive - Flowers and fruits - Daffodil 
Date of issue : 09, March , 2018 

Narcissus is a genus of predominantly spring perennial plants of the Amaryllidaceae . Narcissus has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepalssurmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped corona. The flowers are generally white or yellow (also orange or pink in garden varieties), with either uniform or contrasting coloured tepals and corona. The species are native to meadows and woods in southern Europe and North Africa with a centre of diversity in the Western Mediterranean, particularly the Iberian peninsula. 




Weather phenomenon - Rainbow 
Date of issue : 25- April - 2008 

Since the earliest times people used to watch carefully the nature, trying to foretell by the clouds or animal's behavior, for example, the oncoming storm, rain or drought. The weather influences our general frame of mind, but we have no influence on it, either. Not infrequently the nature shows us its tremendous power in the floods or hurricanes, for example. But there are also many meteorological phenomena that may pass unwatched for us, and sometimes it is simply worth to look at the sky to see something beautiful and unusual. Meteorology - a branch of science, investigating the atmospheric phenomena.

Sand blizzard - the sand being carried up high above the ground level by the strong, hot wind. 
Lightnings - The lightning in fact is an electric spark, zeroing the charge difference between the cloud and the earth or between two individual clouds.
Rainbow - an arch of the diffracted sunlight. It emerges in the result of refraction, diffraction and the total internal reflection of solar rays in the small raindrops in the atmosphere. It is visible only if the Sun shines from behind of the observer and is sufficiently low (less than 40 degrees) above the horizon. 
Tornado - a great funnel shaped whirl of air and liquefied water vapor, reaching up to the clouds. 

Thanks Wojtek for this beautiful cover that just bursts with the beauty of a Polish Spring !! Wishing you a very happy Spring :) 
PS : Don’t forget to look out for some birds in / on your mailbox that might be coming from across Europe ;)