Fruits of the Forest 29.11.1973

Pro Juventute is a charitable foundation in Switzerland established in 1912. It is dedicated to supporting the rights and needs of Swiss children and youth.

Since 1913, the Swiss post office has issued an annual charity stamp series to support the work of Pro Juventute. The Pro Juventus stamps who’s surcharge went to children’s charity were in the series “Fruits of the Forest”.

(15+5) Castanea sativa, or sweet chestnut, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fagaceae, native to Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived deciduous tree, it produces an edible seed, the chestnut, which has been used in cooking since ancient times.

(30+10) Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, bird cherry, or gean, is a species of cherry native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America and Australia. All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.

(40+20) The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the Rubusgenus in the Rosaceae family, hybrids among these species within the Rubussubgenus, and hybrids between the Rubus and Idaeobatus subgenera. The taxonomy of the blackberries has historically been confused because of hybridization and apomixis, so that species have often been grouped together and called species aggregates. For example, the entire subgenus Rubus has been called the Rubus fruticosus aggregate, although the species R. fruticosus is considered a synonym of R. plicatus.

(60+20) Blueberries are perennial flowering plants with indigo-colored berries from the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium (a genus that also includes cranberries, bilberries and grouseberries). Species in the section Cyanococcus are the most common fruits sold as "blueberries" and are native to North America (commercially cultivated highbush blueberries were not introduced into Europe until the 1930s).