Can this be true? Are there plants in the Himalayas that only bloom once every 400 years? If so, how would anyone know since humans don’t live that long? Hmm. Come along as CryptoVille investigates!

Facebook users are sharing a photo of a beautiful flower called the Mahameru Pushpam, or Arya Pu. The text that accompanies it explains that it can be found in the Himalayas and only blooms once every 400 years.

It’s a lovely flower, isn’t it?

Oops!

There’s only one problem. That’s a photo of a Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) cactus flower which blooms pretty regularly out in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, California’s Whipple Mountains and Imperial County, and in the Mexican state of Sonora.

According to Wiki, these flowers bloom from April through June. During the day mostly bees pollinate them, but several species of hummingbirds also help out. The Gila woodpecker, gilded flicker, verdin, and house finch also lend a pollinating hand.

At night, the flowers are visited by the lesser long-nosed bat.

The flowers range between 3.4 and 4.9 inches long so they are substantial. The pollinators have only 24 hours to set the pollen for the next generation of Saguaro cactuses before each flower closes.

 

Fake Flower

So what about the fake flower?  The Mahameru Pushpam?  For starters, Maha Meru, or Mount Meru, refers to a sacred five-peaked mountain in the cosmetology of the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist religions. Nothing floral there.

I learned this hoax is sometimes shown with another real flower, the Protea (Protea cynaroides). The protea lives in South Africa and is dubbed the National Flower of that country.  It’s a huge flower and comes in a variety of colors. But it does not open once every 400 years in the Himalayas.

Who Makes This Stuff Up

It’s usually too hard to find who starts these hoaxes, but in this case, the hoax debunker I consulted pointed to a Chinese blog. Not surprisingly, their posts encourage everyone to share it. Makes you wonder why, doesn’t it?

Oh well, another mix-up sorted, this time from the plant world.  Let’s all be more careful and cautious in the kinds of things we share on social media. There is too much weirdness going on these days!

 

But feel free to share CryptoVille articles – you’re safe here!

 

Please also stop by our Facebook page, CryptoVille, where we share all manner of strange, beautiful, and sometimes silly things related to all things cryptid! Please Like our page while you’re there.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro#Flowers

http://www.hoaxorfact.com/science/mahameru-pushpam-rare-himalayan-flower.html