Every twelve years, the hills around the Mattupetty, India, work with the cosmos to seed a new generation.
We talk about “telling time” but it might be more accurate to say “time tells in us.” And before we will admit that, in wrinkled skin and with shallow voices, plants make it plain. Especially in flowering.
This year provides an indisputable witness: the amethyst-colored Neelakurinji of southern India. Already it’s coming into bloom, for the first time in 12 years.
The Neelakurinji in bloom near Mattupetty, beckoning tourists and bees
Photo: Balan Madhavan
“The hills of Chokramudy, Meeshapulimala, Edalimedu in Mattupetty, and Sevenmalai will be painted violet in September and October, 2026,” announced botanist Jomy Augstin.
The Neelakurinji (‘Kurinji’ for short or “blue flower” in translation) is one of many Strobilanthes, “a genus of around 350 species of flowering plants, 59 of which are spread across peninsular India.” They bloom at various intervals, in patches across the region, yet since spice and tea plantations have encroached on much of their native habit, lots of these species are “vitually unnoticeable”.
Not so with Strobilanthes kunthiana, not this year. According to Dr. Augustine, this season, “only the Strobilanthes kunthiana species will bloom”, blanketing the hills for the first time since 2014.
Kurinij: it’s honey is prized a ‘liquid gold’
Photo: Our Breathing Planet
Mongabay has a wonderful story about semelparity, the once-in-its-lifetime reproduction of some plants, and some animals too. Author Priya Ranganathan explains, “To prepare for a mass seeding event, a long vegetative phase helps the plants in accumulating sufficient resources to produce large quantities of attractive seeds. After flowering, the parent plants die, opening the forest floor and improving soil nutrient levels for their offspring to have enhanced survival.”
Unlike the one-hit-wonders of human popular culture, these organisms super-bloom, ensuring both the numbers and vitality of the next generation.
Of course this rare flowering incites tourists and bees — connoisseurs as well. The honey from Neelakurinji, Kurinjithen, “is rare and is considered a delicacy and is prized for its medicinal properties. The Paliyan tribe collects this honey and has termed it ‘liquid gold’ for its high market value.”
Environmental activist R Mohan told the BBC, “Seeing the Neelakurinji is extremely special, because you think, maybe I won’t be around for the next time. Twelve years down the line, maybe I’m living somewhere else because of a job or marriage… maybe I’ll be dead”. That’s time telling it like it is.
Twelve years is the cycle of Jupiter in relation to the planet Earth. In astrology it marks the completion of one life-phase and the dawn of a new one. This celestial feature is observed by some Hindu sects in the celebration of Kumbh Mela. In 2025 660 million devotees made their pilgrimage to Prayagraj to splash in the sacred waters, a rite of purification, where the Ganges and Yamuna flow together with the mythical Saraswati river.
Rose petals are dropped on the millions gathered for Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, in Prayagraj.
Photo: Deccan Herald
Of course, that occasion too is crowned with flowers, principally marigolds bedecking the bodies of men and boys.
Twelve months of the year, disciples of Jesus, inches in a foot, hours of day and night, steps in Alcoholics Anonymous, eggs, tribes of Israel, roses …What is it?
Numerologists have their theories; so do psychologists.
Daniel Levinson, best known for identifying “the midlife crisis” was one early proponent of “seasons” to explain the life trajectory. More recently, Neil Killion has picked up the thread and, dismissing any connection with the occult, specified 12 years as the span of major changes.
A boy is hoisted up in the pilgrimage of Kumbh Mela.
Photo: Bold Outline
He writes, “I did this by using a process of detailed biographical analysis and by concentrating on important events in just these very few years of an individual’s life. The results have proven to be astonishing and has caused me to name these first years of a theoretical 12 year cycle, as the ‘Years of Revolution’, because it appeared to me to be like a personal revolution in so many lives.”
Killian points out that his theory, which on its face pertains to human development and psychology, may eventually bear on philosophy — as he puts it “a practical demonstration of the presence of a form of determinism” — a challenge to free will.
Another way of saying, “Sure, check your watch, but time has the upper hand.”
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