Nature of America
This series – which ended in 2010 – captures the unique beauty of America. Each sheet is an artistic masterpiece revealing nature’s majesty in a different geographic region of the U.S. Every semi-jumbo stamp has at least one identifiable plant or animal that is native to the environment being showcased. The stamps are laid out in a staggered fashion, corresponding to the sheet’s design. This special format makes the Nature of America Series an attractive addition to your U.S. collection.
Sonoran Desert
Despite its harshness, life thrives in the Sonoran Desert. Cactus trees, paloverdes, desert tortoises, Gila monsters, and roadrunners are among the hundreds of plant and animal species that make their home there.
Pacific Coast Rain Forest
Great Plains Prairie
The Great Plains Prairie covers over a million square miles in the center of North America. It’s an enormous, grass-covered plateau formed by erosion of the Rocky Mountains.
Longleaf Pine Forest
The longleaf pine forest is the largest conifer (cone-bearing) forest east of the Mississippi River. The rough-barked trees grow up to 100 feet tall, with dark green, shiny needles up to 18 inches and cones up to 10 inches long. A mature tree can live 500 years.
Arctic Tundra
Covered by snow most of the year, the tundra comes alive in the spring. Birds arrive to nest. A never-setting summer sun warms the air above freezing. Plants grow rapidly and paint the ground with bright flowers. The thawed soil is only inches deep, above a permanently frozen layer that is over 1,000-feet thick in some places.
Pacific Coral Reef
Stamp sheet features over 30 species, while the back side includes fun and informative text. The result is a striking illustration of a delicate ecosystem.
Northeast Deciduous Forest
Deciduous trees grow in a climate with cold winters, warm summers, and year-round precipitation. The broad-leaved trees of the Northeast deciduous forest shed their leaves annually in the autumn and early winter. When the dying leaves lose their green color in the fall, reds and golds emerge that create a spectacular display. A new set of leaves grows each spring.
Southern Florida Wetland
Southern Florida’s subtropical wetlands are a vast expanse of saw grass marshes and mangrove swamps that formed about 5,000 years ago. They support a unique variety of wildlife and salt- and fresh-water plants that is found nowhere else.
Alpine Tundra
Great Lakes Dunes
The sand dunes of the Great Lakes region represent the largest freshwater coastal dunes in the world.
Kelp Forest
Kelp forests are areas under the sea where there is a lot of marine algae called kelp. The forests occur in temperate or arctic oceans along the coast. Many marine animals make their home in the long fronds (or leaves) of the kelp.
Hawaiian Rain Forest
Tropical rainforests cover more than 2,500 square miles of the Hawaiian Islands. The region has tremendous biodiversity, and designer John Dawson, who created the art for the rest of the series, included 24 separate species. Rainforests experience extremely high amounts of rainfall, and few places are wetter than Hawaii’s forests. The slopes of Mount Waialeale get about 426 inches of rain per year – with a record of 683 inches in 1982. That’s nearly 57 feet of precipitation in a year, making it the rainiest place on Earth.