Henarathgoda Botanical Garden

Henarathgoda Botanical Garden, is always on the must see list of the tourists and for very good reasons. This botanical garden is on comparatively low-lying areas compared to other botanical gardens in the island.

The variety of trees in this botanical garden is simply mindboggling and some of the trees are from faraway places like Brazil. Every tropical tree has been represented, or rather trees are there from every corner of the tropical world. It is really something to see a tree from as far away place as Brazil, specially if the tree is something so unusual as the Para rubber tree. The scientific name for this tree is Hevea Brasiliensis. The garden is open every day but most beautiful during the monsoons as most of the trees are at their green best. In this context it is to be mentioned that in Sri Lanka there are rains at least twice a year, the long wet season helps the gardens to maintain the year round verdure. Its history is linked to the Kandian era and is more known as a meditation center with 81 years of its recent past has been used by Buddhist monks.

In 1876 AD, the first seedlings of Brazilian rubber tree ever planted in Asia, grew and prospered in Henarathgoda Botanical Gardens. It is interesting to note that perhaps this single factor helped in the establishment and proliferation of the rubber industry in Southeast Asia.