This is not the rare Nagaraja flower from the Himalayas; Find out the truth!

A post carrying an image claimed to be of a rare flower called “Nagapushapa” blooming in the Himalayas has appeared in numerous Facebook posts around the world. Sri Lankan Facebook page by the name “Andaree” had posted this image stating in Sinhala “මේ තමයි හිමාල වනයේ පිපෙන දුර්ළඹ නාග රාජ මල. ලයික් එකක් දාලා යාලුවන්ටත් ඵලන්න ශෙයා කරන්න” translated to English it means “This is the rare Nagaraja flower that blooms in the Himalayas. Like and share among friends”

Originally posted in 2017, this has resurfaced again has been shared widely with over 42,000 shared as of now.

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This image has since been posted by a number of Facebook users as well, but these posts have not received lot of attention as compared to the original post. Here are some of the instances where this image had been shared in the last few months

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However, most of the recent comments to the original post were in denial of the claim hence we decided to do a fact check on it and find the truth.

Fact check

We did a simple Google Reverse Image search on the image and found that this image was being used heavily on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Many of them claimed that this is a rare flower named “Nagapushpa” from Himalayas. Numerous Facebook posts from Indonesia claimed that this is a flower by the name Megapushpa, which blooms on the summit of the Jayawijaya Mountains, Indonesia

We also observed a number of fact checks on similar claims that this is a rare flower blooming every 36 years in the Himalalyas and Snopes had debunked these claims way back in 2016 identifying that this ‘flower’ is in fact a type of marine invertebrate known as a sea pen.

Gordon B Bowbrick had taken the original photograph related to the viral claim back in 2013. Here is an archived version of the original photo published in photo.net

Sea Feather or Sea Pen is a marine invertebrate, which belongs to 'Anthozoa' class. The name sea pen derives from its resemblance to quill pens. They occur in shallow and deep waters from polar seas to the tropics. Sea Pens have the ability to pull themselves down into the reef and vanish if threatened. Below is a video about Sea Pens

Comparing the photograph of the sea pen with the viral claim, it is evident that both are the same.

The word 'Nagapushpa' is a Sanskrit word for a tree whose scientific name is 'Mesua ferrea' (නා ගස), which is in fact the national tree of Sri Lanka as well. Dinamina.lk

India Today, had published a video on false claims on “Nagapushpa flower which blooms every 36 years in Himalayas” in 2019 as below and our Factcrescendo’s Indian counterparts have debunked this claim in several languages as well.

Conclusion.

Therefore, it is evident that the viral image is of a Sea Pen, which is species of marine invertebrate animals, and not a rare flower called Nagaraja, which blooms in the Himalayas. Hence, all the claims that associate this image as the rare Nagaraja flower that blooms in the Himalayas “මේ තමයි හිමාල වනයේ පිපෙන දුර්ළඹ නාග රාජ මල” are entirely false.