COVER N. 332 - CANADA

Postmark: Canada Post  Postes Canada World's largest mushrooms Plus grands Champignons au monde  Vilna AB 06.10.2023

Posted on the 6th October; received on the 18th October 2023

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November is really the beginning of the mushroom season around here, but the theme came up a bit earlier this year, with this Canadian cover with a very beautiful and large mushroom related postmark that I got, courtesy of The Phantom.

On looking at the slogan,  on the postmark, though, I was really intrigued...

The world’s largest mushrooms? How could someone claim that....? After all mushrooms come in all sizes and sometimes some really big pop up here and there, (go ask Alice...) so much so that to claim that a given location is the place where the largest mushrooms grow might be a bit of wishful thinking.... I went and took a look into it...

...and… mystery solved: the world's largest mushrooms won't grow more, because they are a sculpture. Located in a public park of the city of Vilna, in the State of Alberta, the huge sculpture replicates a group of three Tricholoma uspale mushrooms, a species that occurs locally and which is traditionally collected for culinary purposes.

With a total weight of over 18,000 pounds and standing 20 feet tall, the sculpture claims to be the largest mushroom replica sculpture in the world, as advertised in the very nice pictorial postmark that is illustrated with a line image of it.

Thanks a bunch, Alex!

- The 2.5 Canadian Dollar stamp on the right illustrated with an image of a baby wapiti (Cervus canadensis) was issued on 31MAR2014. It is part of a set dedicated to baby animals comprising five stamps, which constitutes, the last set issued in an annual definitive series initiated in 2011, dedicated to the theme.

 The Wapity is member of the deer family (Cervidae) distributed in Asia and North America. It was  thought to be a sub species of the reed deer, which can be found in Europe, but genetic studies have proved it to be an entire different species.

 - The two stamps on the left (10 and 25 cents) were issued on 05AUG1992, integrated on a definitive set themed on edible berries. 

 The 10 cent stamp is illustrated with an image of a kinnikinnick shrub (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), a red berry producing plant that is native to subarctic regions. Given its name, it is easy to conclude that bears must be great admirers of the berries produced by the plant.

 The 25 cent stamp is illustrated with an image of a Saskatoon Berry shrub (Amelanchier alnifolia), a white flower and purple berry producing plant native to Alaska, Western Canada and Western and North-central United States.

 Although rather small, I find these stamps quite beautiful and am quite pleased to have them on a cover.