Wuyawon blooms in misty paradise

By Jeijei Newme

IMPHAL | July 24

A unique flower only found in Shingcha village of Kamjong district, Wuyawon and the only hillock where this flower is found, Wuya Kachui was recently declared as a new tourist spot of the state.

This flower is unique and significant and tourists should visit and explore. Wuyawon is a pink ground orchid which blooms at the peak monsoon season of July month.

One of the unique characteristics of the flower is that its colour changes according to the weather. It ranges from pink colour when rainy to light pink when sunny to red pink colour when misty which makes the flower an interesting species of flora in the world.

Another interesting fact is that this flower is not eaten by herbivorous. Villagers say that herbivorous in the village like cows and goats were sent to graze in the field but these animals would never smell and chew this particular flower which makes it weird. There is no exact findings yet but some believe that there must be some chemical or smell that repels the herbivorous to eat this particular plant.

Legends of the village also say that the hillock of Wuya Kachui where this flower is mainly found gives hallucinating nightmares and sleep paralysis to those who lay over the night. It is said that soldiers who camped at this hillock had many experiences of nightmares.

The botanical name of this flower is called Caulokaempferia Secunda. The flowering season of Wuyawon is most of the time rainy and is covered with mist which makes some of the tourists termed the Wuya Kachui hillock as ‘misty paradise’.

Another interesting fact of the village is that in this modern age of 4g and 5g, there is no network connectivity and it is totally cut off from the other parts of the world which would makes nature lovers and tourists to totally have the time of their own with nature.

Wuyawon flourishes within a periphery of 2 square kilometres of the hillock Wuya Kachui and blooms in bunches of about 2 feet or more covering the whole peak for 2 weeks during the monsoon.

The flower was officially given the name Shingcha Wuyawon on July 24, 2016 by the people of Shingcha village which is dominantly habituated by Tangkhul tribe. The acronym of this flower Wuya is hillock and Won means flower in Tangkhul dialect.

Shingcha village is located about 60 kilometres from Ukhrul town and is roughly 120 kilometres from Imphal.