The Muduvar tribe, which inhabit the mountain ranges around Valparai(Tamilnadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, calculates its age with blossoming of the Kurinji. Neelakurinji ,This legendary flower blooms once in 12years and is due to enliven the mountain scapes, once again in the coming year.

In the Western Ghats, at an altitude of about 1,600 metres, in the region of shoals and grasslands, the kurinji flourishes as a gregarious shrub. From the High Ranges to the Sayadhri Mountains, different varieties of the Kurinji flourish in valleys, in slopes and in gorges. All of them have a periodicity from eight to 12 years. After blossoming, the plant wilts. Though most of the varieties are blue, tjere are some yellow varieties too.

Geogaphers refer to the ranges south of the Palghat Gap as the Palni ranges and those to the north as the Nilgiris. In the Palni ranges, in Mattupatti and Gundumalai aroud Munnar, the Kurinji grows in abundance. In the area around Anaimudi also the plant thrives. Anaimudi(in Kerala) or the Elephant Peak is the highest point in South India, being several metres higher than the better-known Doddabetta near Ooty. And the area around it is now called and Eravikulam sanctuaty. The Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary (in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu) is contiguous to this sanctuary.

Documentation

Though this flower has been a familiar subject for poets and for the hill folk, in modern times, two British botanists who explored the Palni ranges-Robert Wight in 1836 and Capt. Beddome in 1857 - documented the details and let the wider world get to know about this plant. The Kurinji found in the Palni and the Nilgiri ranges has been christened Strobulanthus kuntianum. The Catholic clergy in the Shenbaganur seminary in Kodaikanal kept careful notes of the flowering of the Kurinji. In the Nilgiris, it was only from 1858 that we have records of the years of the plant