Khari Bulbul

The Khari Bulbul Flower of Shusha

"The 'Motherland Garden' is full of flowers, but there is no Khari Bulbul among them..." So go the words of an old Azerbaijani folk song. According to the lyrics, a man living abroad and homesick for his native Azerbaijan, decided to plant a garden with flowers indigenous to his homeland. He succeeded in growing each of them except for the khari bulbul, a flower associated with the town of Shusha.

Khari bulbul is a very beautiful ornamental flower. In the Azeri language, "khari" means "bee" and "bulbul" means "nightingale," the bird considered to have the most melodious song. If you look closely at the flower, you'll see its close resemblance to both bird and bee.

The Azeri song lyric about the "motherland garden" has given rise to the legend that the khari bulbul flower can only grow in Shusha. No matter how persistently botanists try to refute this claim, the legend persists. In the flora of the former Soviet Union, more than 10 species of this perennial plant have been identified-Latin, genera Epilobium L. The plant is used in traditional medicine of Azerbaijan.