Cold beauties

Discover four winter-blooming plants in India, from Night-Flowering Jasmine to Kaniar, adding color and life during the cold.

While winter is famous for a diverse variety of migratory birds that land on Indian shores, there are also some plants that flower during this season. Here are four winter-blooming plants commonly seen in India that add colour and life during the cold.

Roam around any garden or orchard in your neighbourhood at night, and you will notice an enticingly sweet and lingering fragrance. This is the specialty of the Night-Flowering Jasmine shrub. The beautiful white flowers, which are shaped like stars, adorn gardens and orchards all over India. Soon, streets will be decorated by a white-and-orange carpet when these flowers bloom and fall off. This en masse flowering only in early winter: September to December! Apart from butterflies, did you know an interesting fact about how these flowers are pollinated? Thrips are tiny, slender nocturnal insects that use their needle-like mouths to suck plant tissue, pollinating the Parijat in the process!

The Kaniar flower looks like something out of a fairy tale! The five smooth long petals look like butterfly wings. The flowers are a delightful mix of purple and pink with faint white streaks and a touch of golden yellow at the heart. When these flowers bloom from September to November, they turn the whole tree into a magical, unmissable explosion of colour! During this time, the tree is abuzz with bees, its pollinator buddies! It is popular with farmers as goat feed too!

With lantern-shaped white flowers boasting a lovely yellow inner side, the flowers of this plant bloom in winter. They are the favourite of many bees and flies pollinating them. Butterflies like White Branded Ace munch on the plant as caterpillars, while adults of Chocolate Pansy and Angled Pierrot suck on its delicious nectar. Even the largest land mammal, the massive elephant, loves to eat its green stems! This tree thrives in both the dry conditions of Central India and the heavy rainfall of the Western Ghats, adapting to the toughest environments effortlessly!

Commonly called Country Mallow or Bala, this tiny but vital native herb is found across grasslands and pastures in India. Its small, bright yellow flowers bloom mainly in the late monsoon and early winter, infusing warm colours into the surroundings. Bala’s nectar attracts insects like butterflies, bees and wasps, while the flowers provide food for beetles. The leaves are heart-shaped and fuzzy. Bees like the Stingless Bee and Indian Honey Bee pollinate it; always reliable “beeing” on the job!