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Neelakurinji
A shrub of the high shola-grassland that grows quietly for twelve years, flowers once in a synchronised mass across whole hillsides, sets seed and dies. The twelve-year cycle is genuine and specific to this species.
How to recognise it
Blue-violet tubular flowers carried in dense heads on knee-to-chest-high bushes between 1,340 and 2,600 m. Out of a bloom year the plant is a plain green shrub and easy to walk past.
Protection
Listed under Schedule III of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 in January 2023 - picking, uprooting or possessing the plant is an offence. Kurinjimala Sanctuary at Kottakamboor-Vattavada was declared in 2006 to protect core kurinji habitat.
Where to see it
Munnar
Munnar has two separate Neelakurinji populations on offset cycles, a detail most guides get wrong. The Eravikulam National Park population last bloomed in 2018 and is next due in 2030. A different population on Chokramudi, Korandakkad near Mattupetty and the Meesapulimala slopes bloomed in 1990, 2002 and 2014 and is flowering in 2026 (from late August at Chokramudi, expected to hold through September into October), so in 2026 the kurinji is out, but not inside Eravikulam.
Meesapulimala (in season) · Mattupetty Dam (in season) · Eravikulam National Park (in season)