The Nilgiri hills over their name to a wondrous violet-hued species of flower that envelop them once every 12 years. The delicate blue Neelakurinji is one of the 250 species of the kurinji flower that blooms after a long interval. The 150 cm-high shrubs thrive at an altitude above 1800m on the Western Ghats of South India. Its flowering season lasts from August to November. The plants grow for many years, bloom en masse and then die after setting seed. Such kinds of plants are called ‘plietesials’.
Thousands of tourists flocked Munnar and the Nilgiris in 2018 to feast their eyes on landscapes bedecked in blue.
Neelakurinji belongs to the family of Acanthaceae. The genus has more than 500 species, of which about 50 occur in India. Besides the Western Ghats, Neelakurinji is seen in the Shevroys in the Eastern Ghats. It occurs at an altitude of 1300 to 2400 metres. Flowering takes places between April and December, peaking towards September.
Picture Credit : Google