Henarathgoda Botanical Garden
Henarathgoda Botanical Garden | |
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Entrance of the garden | |
Type | Botanical garden |
Location | Gampaha, Sri Lanka |
Coordinates | 7°06′00″N 79°59′10″E / 7.10000°N 79.98611°ECoordinates: 7°06′00″N 79°59′10″E / 7.10000°N 79.98611°E |
Created | 1876 |
Operated by | Department of National Botanic Gardens, Sri Lanka |
Status | Open all year |
Henarathgoda Botanical Garden is one of the five botanical gardens in Sri Lanka. The other botanical gardens are Peradeniya Botanical Garden, Hakgala Botanical Garden, Mirijjawila Botanical Garden and Seetawaka Botanical Garden.
Location and climate
Henarathgoda Botanical Garden is situated in Gampaha-Minuwangoda main road, 450 m away from Gampaha railway station. It has about 29 km far from the Sri Lanka's commercial capital of Colombo.[1][2] The altitude of garden is about 33 feet above the sea level. It has a tropical low-country climate.
The total area of the botanical garden is about 36 acres and, recently it acquired another 7 acres for its expansion process.
History
In 1876 this land was used by British rulers to cultivate Rubber. In later, rubber seeds and plants were imported from Royal Kew botanical garden and planted in this land. This process was supervised by Muhandiram A. De Zoysa, who appointed by British rulers at that time in Sri Lanka.
Later this land was transformed in to a Botanical garden. In here there is the first rubber tree in Sri Lanka, as well as some valuable trees from 19th century can be seen.[3][4]