The-Red-Book-of-the-Republic-of-Belarus


Belarus Post issued a set of two stamps featuring Moonwort and European Roller as a part of the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus. The Belarus Red Book was created to protect rare and vanishing species of plants and animals

Moonwort is a fern. It is small with fleshy roots and reproduces by spores shed into the air. One part of the leaf, the trophophore, is sterile and fernlike; the other, the sporophore, is fertile and carries the clusters of sporangia or spore cases. Some species only occasionally emerge above ground and gain most of their nourishment from an association with mycorrhizal fungi.

It is an endangered species. In 1993 it is included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus.

European Roller is a bird resembling a pigeon in size and build. It has a broad bill and bright appearance in blue, brown and black colours. In 1993 it is included into the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus.

The European Roller (Coracias garrulus) is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East and Central Asia and Morocco.

There are two subspecies: the nominate garrulus, which breeds from in north Africa from Morocco east to Tunisia, southwest and south-central Europe and Asia Minor east through northwest Iran to southwest Siberia; and semenowi, which breeds in Iraq and Iran (except northwest) east to Kashmir and north to Turkmenistan, south Kazakhstan and northwest China (west Xinjiang).

The European Roller is a long-distance migrant, wintering in southern Africa in two distinct regions, from Senegal east to Cameroon and from Ethiopia west to Congo and south to South Africa.

The Red Book of the Republic of Belarus

Title: The Red Book of the Republic of Belarus
Date of Issue: 31 January 2013
Country: Belarus
Denominations: H, P

Source: http://www.belpost.by