Gudalur is shrouded in mist and kurinji. These clusters of bell-shaped flowers have burst over the hills, after eight years, painting them violet
“What is special is that it has bloomed at Tamil Nadu’s newly notified reserve forest in Gudalur, the Nilgiris,” says Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Departments of Environment, Climate Change and Forests. The kurinji is not just a rare flower, but also an indicator of climate change. The flowering offers an excellent barometer of the grasslands. Where there are healthy grasslands, there is mass flowering, while disturbances lead to patchy flowering. “When you provide protection and conserve the area, kurinji will certainly bloom and will bring along with it a lot of wildlife,” she adds.
Supriya Sahu says the Tamil Nadu Government is on a mission to create new forest areas. “In the last four and a half years, over 90 new forests have been notified in Tamil Nadu which is unprecedented. These are legacy projects because they have been notified under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, to increase the green cover of the State,” she says. “These flowers have a lot of meaning to the indigenous communities who know the timing of the bloom. It’s a fantastic sign of the biodiversity coming back to the area which the indigenous communities can take pride in.”
Strobilanthes sessilis in bloom at the reserve forests of Gudalur
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
One of the rarest flowers in the world, the neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) blooms once every 12 years on the high altitude grasslands of the Western Ghats. In Gudalur, the mass bloom is of another species of kurinji Strobilanthes sessilis, which blooms once in eight years. Both are grassland species but isolated to different altitudes: neelakurinji occurs in grasslands of altitude above 1,300 metres, and sessilis in the lower altitudes.
“Kurinji blooms are fascinating,” says Professor E Kunhikrishnan, an expert on the Western Ghats, adding that there are as many as 60 species of these flowers that are endemic to the Western Ghats, which do not grow anywhere else in the world. “While the neelakurinji is the most famous and charismatic, there is karinkurinji that blooms annually and several others that bloom in the periodicity of four years, eight years, 10 years (over 20 species) and 12 years.”
An indicator of climate change
The mass flowering often provides a feast for butterflies, honeybees and other insects. The purple flowers hold a large amount of nectar, which especially attract the eastern honeybee. N Venkatesh Prabhu, District Forest Officer of Gudalur Gene Pool, a key bio-diversity conservation site, says “Nadugani is a thriving bio-diversity zone with over 100 species of trees endemic to the Western Ghats. Sightings of elephant herds, and tigers are common. It is a haven for bird watchers. Hornbills are sighted in good numbers as well as butterfly congregations. Our botanist has documented the kurinji flowering of Nadugani forest cover which is spread across 600 acres.”
According to V Sundaresan, botanist at Gudalur Gene Pool, the kurinji blooms can be seen in purple, blue, white, or pink colours. “For every single colour, there will be 10 shades varying from dark to light. There are 33 varieties of kurinji in the Nilgiris,” he adds.
A mysterious floral species
Naturalist AK Pradeep from Kottayam in Kerala, who has a neelakurinji named after him (Strobilanthes pradeepiana) calls it a deeply mysterious and enticing floral species. He has followed kurinji flowers all the way to Tapti in Gujarat where the Western Ghats tapers and to Agasthya mountain ranges in Ponmudi to photograph and document various species of kurinji along the ranges. His study over two decades proved that of the 450 kurinji species the world over, 150 were in India. He says, “Endemism is the main characteristic of the kurinji. I have photographed the Munnar Hills carpeted by the breathtaking kunthiana blooms. Mass blooming is indicative of a healthy grassland and a thriving wildlife.”
Nagudani forest in Gudalur Gene Pool where sessilis has blooomed
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
Pradeep recalls how in 2011, Udhagamandalam’s Doddabeta, where Strobilanthes homotropa(that flowers every 10 years) that bloomed in thousands, was reduced to a couple of plants in the next season in 2021. “It needs favourable conditions for germination. Climate change, uncontrolled tourism, and growth of invasive species have an adverse impact. The species seen in one area cannot be found in another. This is precisely what makes the kurinji hills a storehouse of organic wealth,” explains Pradeep. “In the Nilgiris, Kodaikanal and Munnar, we lost a major part of the grasslands because of the invasion of black wattle, a species we introduced from Australia,” says Kunhikrishnan.
Strobilanthes sessilis that blooms once in eight years
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
Kurinji plants flower only once in a lifetime, a phenomenon seen in bamboo that flowers only once in 40 or 60 years. Once it flowers, its dateline with death is set. The next generation starts from the germination of the seeds. Says Kunhikrishnan, “The gregarious blooms, bring spurts of happiness, and vanish. It’s Nature’s mystery.”
Since the plant species is hugely dependent on microclimatic conditions, the blooming is an indicator of its habitat diversity and presence of alpine conditions for its survival. “The blooms helps study the ecology, altitude, alpine climate at high elevations near the equator among others. The grasslands are unique, and a quick evolution is happening there. The plant’s species diversity indicates its ability to evolve and adapt. These pockets need to controlled and preserved. Uncontrolled tourism has to be avoided,” explains Kunhikrishnan, concluding, “Kurinji is precious.”
Published – October 18, 2025 05:44 pm IST
Comments are closed.