New Varieties of Neelakurinji Flowers

New Varieties of Neelakurinji Flowers
Source: Hindu
GS III: Environment and Conservation

What is discussed under the New Varieties of Neelakurinji Flowers?

New varieties of neelakurinji have been discovered in the Santhanpara area of the Western Ghats.
The bloom seen in Kallippara is of the gregarious flowering (massive flowering) variety.

It is a shrub found in the Western Ghats shola forests of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
The blooms, known locally as Kurinji, grow at elevations ranging from 1,300 to 2,400 metres.
Image by Muhsin Mohd from Pixabay
The name Nilgiri Hills, which literally means “blue mountains,” comes from the purplish blue blooms of Neelakurinji, which bloom just once every 12 years.
The Kurinjimala Sanctuary in Kerala preserves the kurinji in a 32-square-kilometre core habitat in the villages of Kottakamboor and Vattavada in the Idukki district.
These plants are also preserved in the Kurinji Andavar temple in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, which is devoted to the Tamil God Murugan.
It was used as a reference by the Paliyan tribal people of Tamil Nadu to determine their age.
Karnataka contains over 45 species of Neelakurinji, with each species blooming every six, nine, eleven, or twelve years.
Apart from the Western Ghats, Neelakurinji may also be found in the Shevroy in the Eastern Ghats and the Sanduru hills in Karnataka’s Bellary district.
Experts have found almost 100 populations of the Strobilanthes kunthiana variant from the Mangaladevi mountains to Coorg in Karnataka.

The scientific name of Neelakurinji is Strobilanthes kunthiana.
In addition to Strobilanthes kunthiana, other recognised neelakurinji flowers from the hill ranges are:
- Strobilanthes anamallaica
- Strobilanthes heyneanus
- Strobilanthes pulnyensis
- Strobilanthes neoasper
All of these neelakurinji species are found only in the Western Ghats and cover about 200 acres of the Kallippara hills.
After the protected regions of Munnar, the neelakurinji population here is one of the largest of the species.
A wide range of therapeutic plants has also been discovered on the slopes.

The Paliyan and Puliyan tribes, the early residents of the Kodaikanal highlands, are thought to have utilised the Neelakurinji flowering cycle to determine their age.
- The tribal members’ ages increased by 12 years with each new bloom.
In Sangam Literature, traditional Tamil literature, the Kurinji flower is used to depict the accompanying hilly region where it grows.

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