Fact Check: Image of foxtail lily being shared as rare ‘pagoda flower’ seen every 400 years

New Delhi (Vishvas News): A video of a flower is being shared on social media with the claim that it is the ‘Pagoda flower’ or ‘Maha Molu’, a unique and auspicious flower from Tibet. This flower is seen once in 400 years in the Himalayas. “Our generation is fortunate enough to have seen this unique and auspicious flower,” the post read.

Vishvas News in its investigation found that the viral claim is false. The flower seen in the viral video is the foxtail lily, which is shown in bloom. This flower is found in parts of Europe and Asia.

Claim:

Sharing the viral video, Facebook user Beatrice Lim wrote in English in the caption, “This is a unique ‘pagoda flower’ found in Tibet. This flower grows once every 400 years in the Himalayas. Our generation is fortunate enough to have seen this unique and auspicious flower. Share this video even further, so that more people can see it.”

View the archived link of this post here.

Investigation:

To know the truth of the viral video, we extracted several keyframes of the video and searched them through Google reverse image. During this, we found the viral video uploaded on a YouTube channel named SS Creations. According to the information given, it is a foxtail lily flower.

Based on the information received, we started searching on Google with related keywords. We found several pictures of foxtail lilies uploaded to the stock image website Shutterstock.

A Google search for foxtail lily led us to an article published on the BBC’s Gardener’s World website. This report describes how to grow foxtail lilies. Reportedly, foxtail lilies are also known as eremurus. It is a perennial flower, grown for its showy flower spikes in June or July. Foxtail lilies bloom for about three weeks. There are more than 100 buds in this flower. This flower is grown in parts of Europe and Asia. There are 40 different types of foxtail lilies.

On searching about the pagoda flower, we found a report related to this flower on the website of the National Park. As per the given information, this flower belongs to the genus Clerodendrum and part of the family Lamiaceae. This is a flower found in Asia.

For more information, we contacted Dr Som Dev Sharma, Dean of Dr YS Parmar Forestry and Horticulture University, Nauni, Solan. He told us that the viral claim is false. This flower is not a ‘Pagoda flower’ or ‘Maha Molu’ flower found once in 400 years, but it is a foxtail lily. You will easily find this flower in many cities of Europe and Asia. It is grown in many cities of the UK.

Vishvas News did a social scanning of the Facebook user Beatrice Lim who shared this viral claim. It had more than 3,000 followers till the fact was checked.