In Context
- Recently, an expert team has identified six varieties of Neelakurinji across the Santhanpara region of Western Ghats.
About Neelakurinji Flower
- It is a shrub of the Acanthaceae family that famously blooms once every 12 years.Â
- It is endemic to Western Ghats, covering the slopes of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
- Their scientific name is ‘strobilanthes kunthiana’,Â
- Strobilanthes is a genus of about 350 species of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, mostly native to tropical Asia and Madagascar.
- The Topli Karvy (Strobilanthes sessilis), the Karvy (Strobilanthes callosa) and the Kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana), all belong to the Strobilanthes genus.
- The Topli Karvy is found more in the northern section of the Western Ghats in Maharashtra.Â
- The Karvy grows on the steepest cliffs where trees can’t grow.
- They are seen mostly on the Nilgiri hills, which even got its name from the flowers — ‘neela’, meaning blue and ‘kurinji’, referring to the flowers.Â
Source:TH