Christmas Island Botanical Postage Stamps

Date of issue: 3 October 1990
Designer: Ray Honisett
Printer: Leigh-Mardon Pty Ltd, Melbourne

Part of a series of four stamps on indigenous flowers

Plant: Barringtonia racemosa

Family: LECYTHIDACEAE

Putat, Hanging Flower

This is one of the largest forest trees on Christmas Island, forming about 17% of the primary forest canopy.
It also occurs in East Africa, Madagascar, S.E. Asia, N.E. Australia and Pacific islands.
It grows to about 30 m tall. The fruit are 5-7 cm long, ovoid and weakly 4-angled, and are often seen washed up on coasts.