MONSOON BLOOMS!
By September, the magical monsoon casts a colourful spell on Indian hill slopes and plateaus to create floral wonder lands. The term 'monsoon flora' is used for herbs, shrubs and bushes that appear lush green during the rainy season and by August and September, bear beautiful flowers to help the species reproduce. Have you heard of the Kaas Plateau in Maharashtra or the Valley of Flowers in the Himalaya? Here, the changes in the flowers and their colours happen so quickly, that the entire plateau and valley look different week after week!
Most of these flowers are insect pollinated. The bright colours help to attract insects. The flowers have nectaries as rewards for the visitors but since the quantity of sugar is not enough to fill its stomach, the insect is forced to move from one flower to the next, which helps in pollination.
Glory lily Gloriosa superba
Photo: Suraj Das.
You might have thought that lilies grow only in water. The glory lily is a terrestrial lily, whose flower blooms upside-down, a phenomenon referred to as a ‘reflex corolla’. The stalk holding the flower is attached to its base from above. The flower is also called the ‘tiger’s claw’ as the petal colors are similar to that of a tiger. In nature, bright red is usually associated with danger – every part of this plant is poisonous, especially the underground swollen roots called tubers. A chemical called colchicines extracted from the plant is used to treat certain types of cancers.
മേന്തോന്നി എന്ന വിഷചെടിയുടെ പുഷ്പം
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