With the release of the Fringed Tulip stamp, the U.S. Postal Service continues its long tradition of showcasing beautiful flowers on stamps. This one-cent definitive stamp, which features a striking fringed tulip, is being offered in panes of 20.
This stamp features one purple fringed tulip on a yellow-toned cream background. To create the image, photographer Harold Davis backlit the flower on a light box and combined multiple photographic exposures, resulting in a luminous, transparent look. He also scanned a sheet of aged paper and in post-production added the scan as a background to the floral image. The flower was grown in his backyard in Berkeley, California.
Fringed tulips, like all tulips, contain six tepals, made of two whorls of three petals and three sepals. However, fringed tulips feature fraying on the edges of their petals that gives them a delicate, elegant look. The fringes, which can range in color from red, orange, and yellow to pink and purple — may be the same color or different than the rest of the petal.