Sri Lanka’s botanical gardens have a long and proud history, punctuated by colonialism, and industrial change. Throughout this period the gardens have continued to flourish, and the plant collections and herbarium grown. Within the context of the 21st century, the gardens represent a significant national asset for Sri Lanka.

• Peradeniya Botanical Garden


Royal Botanical Garden Peradeniya is situated in the Hill capital Kandy in Centrel province of Sri Lanka. Visit to this garden will provide spectacles at extraordinary beauty and absorbing interest for any nature lover and casual visitor. Peradeniya is well known for its large variety of plants ornaments, useful machine and other creepers that produce the special spices at Sri Lanka. It is renowned for the collection the variety of Orchids, and has more than 300 varieties of Orchids, spices, medicinal plants and palms trees attach it is the National Herbarium. Total land mass of the botanical garden is 147 acres, 460 Meters above sea level with a 200 day annual rain fall, it is managed by the Division of National Botanic Gardens of the Department of Agriculture.

The origins of the Botanic Gardens dates as far back as 1371 when King Wickramabahu III ascended the throne and kept court at Peradeniya near Mahaweli river this was followed by King Kirti Sri and King Rajadhi Rajasinghe. There after the ground work for a Botanical Garden were formed by Mr Alexandar Moon in 1821. Botanical Garden at Peradeniya was formally established and plants from Kew Garden at Slave Island. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya was made more independent and expanded under Mr. George Gardner as its superintendent in 1844. The gardens came under the administration of the Department of Agriculture when it was established in 1912.

A spice garden gives you a firsthand introduction to the trees and plants used for the traditional Ayurvedic medicine. Mahaweli River, Sri Lanka's longest river surrounding this garden gives an added beauty to this garden. It won’t be wrong to say that this garden is one of its best kind in the world and the best in Asia.

• Hakgala Botanical Garden


Hakgala Botanical Garden is one botanical gardens in Sri Lanka. It is one of the places one visits as an essential part of a pleasant journey in the famous hill resort of Nuwara Eliya. The site is legendary. Hakgala Botanical Garden is situated on the Nuwara Eliya-Badulla main road, 16 km from Nuwara Eliya. The garden has a cool temperate climate because of altitude is 5,400 feet above the sea level. The mean annual temperature ranges between 16°C to 30°C during course of a year. From December to February it has a cold climate, while the warm climate persists from April to August.

Garden established in 1861 as an experimental cultivation of Cinchona, a commercial crop thriving at the time. Once after the Tea replace the Cinchona, it was turned into an experimental Tea cultivation. In 1884 it transformed to a garden since then many sub tropical and some temperate plants were planted in the gardens.

The gardens take the shape of several terraces upon the lower slopes of the rock and face the Uva Valley, across which some magnificent views of the Madulsima and the Namunukula range of mountains are seen in the distant landscape. The climate of the Gardens is subtropical, cool, fresh and some what similar to an alpine atmosphere.

• Henarathgoda Botanical Garden


Henarathgoda Botanical garden is situated in close proximity to Gampaha Municipality opened in 1876. It is surrounded by beautiful paddy fields, a man-made green environment, secondary forest & a beautiful water streams. Original extent of gardens was about 36 acres in extent, slightly undulated, the elevation being 33 ft. above mean sea level. An additional 7 acres was added in 2005.

This garden carries historically link to the evolution of Sri Lankan Economy. The first imported rubber tree to Sri Lanka was first planted in this garden and it is visible there. The garden has a fairly big collection of tropical flower plants with eye-catching landscaping properly designed and many shrubs, bushes and beautiful trees could. The garden is famous destination for youngsters.

Henarathgoda Botanic Gardens today functions as an urban botanic garden serving the community in many ways. In addition to its role in ex-situ conservation, botanical research and education, development of domestic floriculture has also become a major activity of the Henarathgoda Botanic gardens. It is also a popular site for recreation.The average annual rainfall in the area is about 2,500 mm. January, February, and March are the hottest and driest months of the year, but heavy rains are not unusual even during this period. The south-west monsoon rains from about April to August fall vary heavily. The north-east monsoon occurs from September onwards, is uniformly distributed.

• Mirijjawila Botanical garden (Dry Zone Botanic Garden)


According to the government policy the Southern Sri Lanka has been earmarked as a development zone for tourism, and a Botanic Garden presents an attractive visitor location both for domestic and foreign tourists.

A dry zone botanic garden (Mirijjawila Botanical garden ) has significant conservation benefits. Sri Lanka is one of 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world; it has high endemism and there are several threats to habitats. Much of this biodiversity lies within Sri Lanka’s forests and much of the forest is secondary, and lies within the dry zone.

Experience of running the national botanic gardens of Peradeniya and Hakgala has demonstrated the business case for tourism, with both gardens being profitable and a major feature on the tourist trail. The new Dry Zone Garden will follow this established, and tried and tested pattern. Its location on the Colombo-Kataragama main road will also attract a large number of local visitors.

The main objective of establishing the new botanic garden is the ex-situ conservation dry and arid zone plants. The garden will also provide opportunities for ecotourism and economic development in this area and to model dry zone landscape improvement. These objectives will be achieved when the garden opens officially to the public.

The benefits of conserving dry zone habitat and its distinctive vegetation are largely long term, though no less significant for that. The rich agro-biodiversity in the Island’s farming systems is experiencing many threats due to unplanned land use, pollution, fragmentation and alteration of farming systems. The garden can play a role in ex-situ conservation of some of the more important components of agrobiodiversity found in the dry zone.


• Ganewatte Medicinal Plant Gardens (GMPG)


Ganewatte Medicinal Plant Gardens (GMPG) is situated in the North Western Province about 15 miles away from Kurunegala. Being located in the intermediate zone, it offers an ideal site for cultivating a large number of medicinal plants. The garden is 52 acres in extent. About half of the land is occupied by coconut cultivation. The medicinal plants grown are mostly arboreal. The commonest trees are nelli, munamal,sandalwood, tamarind and eth-demata. Identification of medicinal plants, Propagation of medicinal plants and Ex-situ conservation of medicinal plants are the educational activities in carried out the Ganewatte Medicinal Plant Gardens.

• Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanical Gardens - Illukowita, Avissawella

The Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanic Garden is situated in illukowita Awissawella in Sri Lanka. The most sensitive and species rich forests in Sri Lanka are scattered in the south-western wet lowland region of the island. These forests are highly fragmented and degraded due to human population pressure of the heavily populated western province. Human settlements, Plantations, Industries and various small and large scale water harvesting projects have created very severe effects on the wet lowland vegetation shrinking it to 9% of the total land area of that province.The main objective of the project is the ex-situ conservation of wet lowland plants. The garden will also provide opportunities for eco-tourism and economic development in this area and to model wet zone landscape improvement. These objectives will be achieved when the garden opens officially to the public.In the longer term, within the first 3-5 years, the garden will feature those plants that are lesser known and under utilized in the wet zone; promote the export floriculture, herbal industry; and provide education and training on botany and floriculture in the wet zone.Biological diversity is known to have declined at an unprecedented rate due to of habitat loss, fragmentation, invasive alien species, over-exploitations/over-harvesting, pollution of soil, water and atmosphere, desertification, global warming and climate change, industrialization and economic development.Ex-situ Conservation of wet lowland zone flora,Export Floriculture Promotion,Eco tourism promotion,Studies on lesser known and under utilized plants in the wet lowland zone,Herbal Industry Promotion and Education and training on botany and floriculture are the main objectives of the new Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanic Garden .