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It is claimed that this flower grows only in the Holy week on social media.

Blood of Jesus on the Cross

For example:

  • Facebook

    This beautiful flower grows in New Zealand and is called the "Blood of Jesus on the Cross".

    This flower grows only in the Holy Week. You can see the Cross in the centre of the flower.

  • Zephyrrenwarin blog

Is this a valid claim ?

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12
  • 2
    Snopes' analysis on it: snopes.com/…. This appears to be a very new rumor.
    – jpmc26
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 16:27
  • 2
    Lot's of flowers bloom in a narrow time frame. It doesn't seem that remarkable of a claim. As the answers show, they got the time frame wrong, but still not that interesting or spectacular.
    – user11643
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 22:01
  • 32
    @fredsbend: A plant that knew about the lunar calendar with sufficient precision to bloom only during Holy Week would be pretty impressive, if you ask me.
    – Flimzy
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 22:14
  • 1
    @Flimzy Well, I guess "holy week" does change annually. I didn't think of that, but for such a claim, stretching the time frame by a week or two is not that unusual.
    – user11643
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 22:21
  • 2
    A plant syncing to a full moon isn't really so far fetched.
    – user36688
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 22:48

2 Answers 2

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67

No, that is a New Zealand pohutukawa (Metrosideros excels) and it blooms for Christmas, not Easter.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrosideros_excelsa

http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-plants/pohutukawa/

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4
  • 10
    But what if it's in the other hemisphere...and if Pope Gregory didn't mess with the calendar...
    – Nick T
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 15:36
  • 4
    @NickT it just blooms then in New Zealand because it is the beginning of summer there, nothing supernatural.
    – DavePhD
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 15:49
  • 2
    @NickT remnants of the Orthodox church still follow the Julian calendar. Their Christmas this year (2017) was January 7th in the Georgian Calendar and this year their Easter is the same date as the Western church's. The difference between the two calendars is only ~13 days. In other words, 0 chance this ever bloomed on Easter.
    – Lan
    Commented Apr 12, 2017 at 23:15
  • @Nick T: I've seen pohutukawa growing in the SF Bay Area, where they bloom in early summer.
    – jamesqf
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 4:34
48

No.

This flower is the flower of the Metrosideros excelsa, the tree is also called pōhutukawa tree and New Zealand Christmas tree.

According to its wikipedia page the tree:

The tree flowers from November to January with a peak in mid to late December (the Southern Hemisphere summer), with brilliant crimson flowers covering the tree, hence the nickname New Zealand Christmas tree. There is variation between individual trees in the timing of flowering, and in the shade and brightness of the flowers

Picture of the flowers

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