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AI-drafted from public sources — may contain mistakes, especially specific dates, names, or claims. Only "Good to know" above is field-checked.
Tradition says
Documented blooms run 1826, 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898, 1910, 1922 and 1934, recorded in a 1936 paper in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
Historians say
A shrub that flowers once every twelve years and then dies, turning hillsides violet-blue. The Tamil name combines neela, blue, with kurinji, a mountain flower - and gives the Nilgiris, the Blue Mountains, their name.