Munnar the most popular Hill Station in Kerala

Munnar is blessed with a rich variety of flora and fauna but the most well known among them is Neelakurinji. Its botanical name is Strobilanthus, and it is a plietesial type plant, growing and flowering only once in 12 years. The Neelakurinji or Kurinji is a unique shrub species that blooms in Munnar and the hills across Western Ghats. Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) belongs to the family of Acanthaceae. The species name Kunthiana has been derived from the River Kunthi. The genus has around 300 species, of which at least 46 occur in India. Besides the Western Ghats, it can also be found in Eastern Ghats. The flower has 50 different varieties, as botanists say, but is found largely in shades of blue -- referred to as "Neelakurinji".

Neela means blue in Malayalam and Tamil language and Kurinji is the local name of the flower. In Tamil scripture, Kurinji is the name of the highland areas. Aptly, the flower that blooms only in the high altitudes of Western Ghats is named 'Neelakurinji'. For those in Munnar, the blooming of Kurinji flower is a reminder that their lives have gone past another twelve years and for those from far off places it maybe once in a life time opportunity to witness the Kurinji flowers covering the hills of Munnar in a blanket of blue.

On the hills, the plant usually grow 30 to 60 cm in height, but under more favourable conditions they can grow well beyond 180 cm. It can be found only in high altitudes between 1,600 metres and 2,600 m and what makes it so special, apart from its beauty, is that it blooms only once in 12 years. The mass flowering and subsequent death of the Kurinji is the subject of many hill folklore.

Although Neelakurinji has flowering cycles ranging from one to 12 years, it has been flowering every 12 years since 1800. What triggers the massive flowering every 12 years is not known clearly yet. Plants that bloom at long intervals like this is called plietesial. But stray flowering do occur in between. The flowering season comes between August and November and peak in late September and October although some varieties exhibit little variation. It looks light blue in the early stage of blooming and has purplish blue colour when aged.

The Strobilanthus shrub that blooms only once in twelve years has bloomed last in the year 2006. Now is the auspicious time to be in Munnar. The flowers picturesquely carpet the entire hillsides with its mauve blossoms. The next flowering is in the year 2018 and thereafter in 2030 and so on. Deforestation, removal of habitat, etc has vastly reduced the area in which Neelakurinji grew earlier.

The Nilgiris, which means Blue mountains, is supposed to have got its name from the blue flowers of Neelakurinji. This mountains in Tamilnadu lies adjacent to the Munnar hills. Once they used to cover the entire Nilgiris like a carpet during its flowering season. However, now plantations and dwellings occupy much of their habitat. The departments of Tourism, Forests and Wildlife have initiated a campaign for the preservation of Neelakurinji and its natural habitat.

During the last blooming in 2006, the biggest Neelakurinji flowering was at the Eravikulam National Park in Munnar. It also bloomed at several places around Munnar, Kodaikanal and Ooty (Nilgiris). The blossoms spread out as a blanket on the hill sides of the Anamalai, Nilgiris (Ooty) and Palani (Kodaikanal) hills. Campaigners want the entire stretch from Kodaikanal to Munnar in Kerala to be declared as the "Kurinji sanctuary".

In the year 1994, the flowers showed up at some places around Munnar like Mattupetty and Top Station. Shortly, the slopes of Munnar hills got blanketed by the Kurinji flowers, which added yet another alluring charm to the sights and sounds of Munnar.

One interesting result of the gregarious flowering of Strobilanthus is the largest increase in bees found in its vicinity during the flowering period. Immense quantities of honey become available and the rock bees and common hill bees visit the plant. It is also believed that honey collected from near the blossoms is the sweetest. A lot of mythological significance is also attributed to the flower.