Henarathgoda Botanical Garden

Henarathgoda Botanical Garden Henarathgoda Botanical Garden Henarathgoda Botanical Garden

Henarathgoda Botanical Garden is one of the six botanical gardens in Sri Lanka. The botanical garden is situated on the Gampaha-Minuwangoda main road, approximately 450 m (1,480 ft) away from Gampaha railway station. It is about 29 km (18 mi) from Sri Lanka's commercial capital of Colombo.

History

In 1825 Governor Edward Barnes planted an extensive garden at this location, on the banks of the Kelani River.

During the 19th Century British naturalists made various studies about botany along with other sciences. One of their interests was the finding of possibility of establishing rubber yielding plants in Asia. They planted various rubber yielding plants both in India and Ceylon, including Para rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), Gutta percha (Palaquium gutta), Panama rubber (Castilea elastica), Balatta (Mimusops globesa) and Lagos (Funtumia elastica). The British naturalists concentrated their trials to Ceylon due to the failure of rubber trials in India and discovered that Ceylon offers the same environmental condition as that of the Amazon.

In 1876, 1,919 rubber seedlings, collected from the Amazon forest, were imported from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and planted at the Gampaha gardens, under the guidance of George Thwaites, the superintendent of the botanical gardens at Peradeniya.[4] These rubber plants bloomed for the first time in 1881 and seeds obtained from them were exported to South India, Malaysia, and Myanmar. In 1919 the world first rubber exhibition was held at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya.

At these times the garden was laid out and managed by Muhandiram Amaris De Zoysa under the supervision of the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya. The oldest rubber tree in the gardens collapsed following a severe rain storm in 1988 and the remaining trees are now preserved as a national monument of the country.

The altitude of garden is about 10 m (33 ft) above the sea level. It has a tropical low-country climate. The total area of the botanical garden is about 15 ha (37 acres) and recently it acquired another 2.8 ha (6.9 acres) for its expansion.

Henarathgoda Botanical Garden Henarathgoda Botanical Garden Henarathgoda Botanical Garden

【LK94009887: Henarathgoda Botanical Garden. Text by Lakpura™. Images by Google, copyright(s) reserved by original authors.】

About Gampaha District

Gampaha is an urban city in Sri Lanka and is the capital of the Gampaha District in Western Province, north of Colombo. Gampaha District is separated from Colombo mainly by the Kelani River. Gampaha town is about 4km from Miriswatta on Colombo-Kandy road. Gampaha is surrounded by Yakkala, Miriswatta, Weliweriya Udugampola and Ja-Ela towns.

The name "Gampaha" in Sinhala literally means Five Villages. The five villages are known to be Ihalagama, Pahalagama, Medagama, Pattiyagama and Aluthgama.

About Western Province

The Western Province is the most densely populated province of Sri Lanka. It is home to the legislative capital Sri Jayawardenapura as well to Colombo, the nation's administrative and business center. Western Province is divided into 3 main districts called Colombo (642 km²), Gampaha (1,386.6 km²) and Kalutara (1,606 km²) districts. As Sri Lanka's economic hub, all the major local and international corporations have their presence in the city and so do all the major designer and high street retailers, so be ready to indulge in some retail therapy in western province.

Having the highest population in the all the provinces, the almost all the premier educational institutions in the island are located in western province. Universities in the province include the University of Colombo, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, University of Kelaniya, Open University, Sri Lanka, Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University and University of Moratuwa .Western province has the largest amount of schools in the country, which includes National, Provincial, Private and International schools.

【Text by Lakpura™. Images by Google, copyright(s) reserved by original authors.】

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