WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

spring up
    v 1: come into existence; take on form or shape; "A new
         religious movement originated in that country"; "a love
         that sprang up from friendship"; "the idea for the book
         grew out of a short story"; "An interesting phenomenon
         uprose" [syn: originate, arise, rise, develop,
         uprise, spring up, grow]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

85 Moby Thesaurus words for "spring up":
   appear, approach, arise, be born, become, blossom, bob up,
   break forth, break out, break water, brew, burgeon, burst forth,
   chance, come along, come forth, come into being,
   come into existence, come on, come out, come to be, crop up,
   debouch, develop, draw on, erupt, flare up, flash, float up,
   flourish, fly up, fountain, gather, germinate, get to be, gleam,
   grow, grow up, gush, have origin, hypertrophy, increase, irrupt,
   issue, issue forth, jet, jump up, leap up, materialize, mature,
   mushroom, originate, outgrow, overdevelop, overgrow, overtop,
   pop up, present itself, procreate, pullulate, reproduce, rise,
   rocket, shoot up, show up, skyrocket, sprout, sprout up, spurt,
   start up, surface, take birth, take rise, thrive, tower, turn up,
   upleap, upshoot, upspear, upspring, upsprout, upstart, vault up,
   vegetate, wax