K for Kurinji

 Once in twelve years, the blue Kurinji Strobilanthes kunthiana flowers en masse in the grasslands of the Western Ghats. Last week, we had gone to see the mass flowering.

 Our young guide, Santosh, whose school had a holiday, took us through tea gardens, and up rocky outcrops, to the patch of the hill where the fragrant Kurinji flowers were blooming.

 The flowers attracted swarms of bees and butterflies, which , in turn, attracted frogs. It was thrilling to see the whole hillside covered with these wild flowers. The plants will dry up and die afterflowering , and new seedlings will come up after ten months, which will flower together after 12 years!
The Todas, natives of Nilgiris consider these flowers sacred, and have taboos about destroying the plants. But the whole region is now being converted to tea plantations, and the Kurinji is in the endangered list.
 Another K flower is the Kopsia fruticosa called Shrub Vinca, which flowers throughout the year, every year.

My thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger of ABC Wednesday and Michelle of Rambling Woods.