Himalayan Whorlflower

Whorls of long, tubular flowers are stacked in rings up a stem, each ring backed by a collar of spiny bracts. The flowers open white, then turn pale pink and finally rosy red, so a single spike can carry three colours at once.

The colour change follows pollination and is thought to tell insects that a flower has already been visited, so they spend their time on the fresh ones. The tube is so long that moths are the likeliest pollinators, and gardeners report that the plants are also self-fertile.

The plant is a Himalayan perennial found from Kashmir to Bhutan. It grows up to about a metre tall from a rosette of glossy, dark green leaves with sharp spines along the margins, which is why people often take it for a thistle.

A rosette of narrow, glossy, spiny-edged leaves and a stiff spike of tiered whorls of tubular flowers in white, pink and crimson. Check different tiers of the same spike: if the colours differ with height, it is this plant.

Open slopes and alpine shrubberies at about 3,000 to 4,000 m. Flowers of India gives June to September; the park's botanical survey records white-pink flowers from July to September. It is one of the most frequently recorded flowers in the valley and is sometimes described as growing in abundance there.

The valley meadows lie at roughly 3,200 to 3,600 m, well inside the plant's range, so this is one of the likelier flowers to find on an ordinary day walk. Look on open slopes and among alpine shrubs rather than in boggy ground.

Its spikes can reach about a metre and stand above the surrounding herbs, so scan for the tiers. Look at one spike from the side so that its white, pink and red whorls fall in one frame.

Stay on the path while you do. Trampled, compacted ground is where weedy invaders take hold (see our page on Himalayan knotweed), and the meadow here is fragile.

See the route on the interactive trek map, and read Valley of Flowers altitude and altitude sickness before you go.

Mainly ornamental; it is a popular, drought-tolerant garden plant. The plant is used as an incense, and the roots yield about 0.34% essential oil. The Plants For A Future database also reports that the stem, leaves and flowers are used in Tibetan medicine as a digestive; we did not find clinical evidence for that.

• Botanists place Morina in the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), not the thistle family it resembles.
• Fine Gardening recommends it as a drought-tolerant summer plant, a sign of how well it copes with thin, stony mountain soil.

Listed in the park's botanical checklist (white-pink, July to September). iNaturalist has 25 research-grade observations from the valley and Hemkund Sahib area (27 counting the Govindghat–Ghangaria trail).

Listed in the park's botanical checklist or photographed inside the valley.

ValleyOfFlowers.in is an independent guide. This page summarises the park's botanical survey, published research and research-grade observation records, together with trekkers' public reports. Where sources disagree, we say so.

• Wadhwa, Rao & Hajra (1987), Botany of the Valley of Flowers National Park and its Environs, Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 29
• Himalayan Whorlflower – Flowers of India
• Morina longifolia – Plants For A Future
• Himalayan whorlflower – Fine Gardening
• Morina – Beth Chatto's Gardens