Neelakurinji

                             Common Name: Neelakurinji

 Botanical Name : Strobilanthes kunthiana

Neelakurinji is the best known of a genus, Strobilanthes, that has flowering cycles ranging from one to 16 years. Besides the Western Ghats, Neelakurinji is seen in the Shevroys in the Eastern Ghats.

Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) Malayalam Tamil is a shrub that used to grow abundantly in the shola grasslands of the Western Ghats in South India above 1800 metres.

Which literally means the blue mountains, got their name from the purplish blue flowers of Neelakurinji that blossoms gregariously only once in 12 years.

Some species of Strobilanthes including this one are examples of a mass seeding phenomenon termed as masting which can be defined as "synchronous production of seed at long intervals by a population of plants".

They once used to cover the Nilgiri Hills and Palani Hills like a carpet during its flowering season. Now plantations and dwellings occupy much of their habitat. In 2006, Neelakurunji flowered again in Kerala and Tamil Nadu after a gap of 12 years.  The Paliyan tribal people also apparently used it to calculate their age.