Most of the territory of Sri Lanka is covered with nature reserves and national parks preserving the unique natural wealth of the island. Among them, an honorable place is occupied by Botanical Garden in Peradeniya, bearing the status of the Royal, and rightfully recognized as one of the best in the entire Asian region.
Its collection includes about 4,000 different plant species, both endemic and brought here by people. The territory of the garden occupies a peninsula in the channel of Mahaweli with total area 59 ha.
Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya: history
The foundation of the botanical garden in Peradeniya dates back to the beginning of the 19th century (1821). This is an excellent field for studying the local flora, therefore representatives of various university and research structures come to Sri Lanka every year. natural wealth Peradeniya also attracts wildlife lovers to admire the unique plants that can only be seen here.
The pride of the botanical garden is a rich collection of orchids, numbering about 100 different species. The climate of Sri Lanka has a beneficial effect on these whimsical plants, here they grow and develop faster than anywhere else.
The highlight of the park in Peradeniya is a grove of 175 trees of various species, which different time personally planted famous politicians, scientists and cultural figures. Such a dendroautograph was left in Sri Lanka by the English King Edward VII, Emperor Nicholas II. And many years later, the first Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin supported the wonderful tradition.
Opening hours of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kandy
Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya awaits visitors all year round from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. This schedule is focused on the weather in Sri Lanka: the morning hours after dawn are the most convenient for movement and sightseeing. The midday heat is very tiring for an unprepared person, and all living things at this time tend to hide from the sun. Animals and birds hide in the thicket, plants lower their leaves in anticipation of the evening coolness.
How to get from Kandy to the Botanical Garden
The easiest way to get here is from Kandy, which is 6.5 km from the borders of the botanical garden. Optionally, you can use the local public transport or hire a taxi. From Colombo to Peradeniya to go as much as 110 km. Since it is better to book an excursion early in the morning, it is more advisable to arrive early and spend the night in Kandy.
Peradeniya Botanic Garden is located at: Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. From Kandy, you can get here by bus number 644. The Clock Tower bus stop is located near the clock tower. Another option is bus number 652 from the Torrington stop in the market area.
Royal Botanic Garden established in small town Peradeniya in Sri Lanka for a very long time!
Today it is visited by about 2 million tourists every year!
The climate favored the growth of a wide variety of plants, trees and flowers on the island.
There are some species that grow only in Sri Lanka and nowhere else.
One of the reasons why people fly to Sri Lanka and fall in love with it is the variety of plants!
High in the mountains, people gather simply amazingly delicious!
I also madly wanted to visit the Botanical Garden.
Therefore, today there will be a short story and a photo report about visiting the largest Botanical Garden in Asia!
The Botanical Garden in Peradeniya was established in 1821. It is located 6 km from the city of Kandy, in the bend of the Mahaweli River, the most major river Sri Lanka.
The park is huge! About 60 hectares. This is about 84 football fields!
Below is a map of how to get to the Botanical Garden from Kandy.
The park is open 365 days a year, seven days a week. Opening hours from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm.
Website: http://www.botanicgardens.gov.lk/peradeniya/
Park map.
A ticket for foreign citizens is many times more expensive than for locals.
It cost me 1100 rupees or 280 rubles. At the same time, for the local population, it costs only 50 rupees or 12 rubles.
After paying for the ticket, I was on the territory.
With the ticket, I was given a small booklet with a description, which can be easily navigated.
Entering here, you find yourself in another world. Garden Fantastic!
After looking at the map, I decided to go around on the left side.
The first thing I saw was African palm tree from West Africa. Palm oil is extracted from the fruits of this tree.
Here are the largest trees in the park.
Jackfruit. Or Indian Breadfruit. Its fruits can reach 40 kg of weight.
Throughout the park there are signs that indicate the name, description and origin.
Agatis Robusta, from Australia. A huge evergreen tree up to 50 meters high and up to 16 meters wide in girth.
Such huge cones grow on massive branches!
The roots of this tree, like tentacles, stick out of the ground.
Very rare and interesting double coconut tree from the Seychelles.
You can see two coconuts together. The fruits take as long as 7 years to ripen.
Coconut Alley.
tree called Butterfly Tree from Asia.
Its flowers are similar in shape to a butterfly.
Beautiful flower beds grow along the road.
Flowers.
Then I got to Bamboo collection.
tropical giant bamboo from China.
It is considered the largest bamboo in the world.
The height reaches 46 meters, and it can be as thick as a birch.
black bamboo from India.
Dog. By the way, I have never seen any other breed of dog in Sri Lanka.
Lake, with beautiful plantings and an island in the center. Mostly marshy plants grow here. So, for example, the lake is covered with various lilies. And along the lake grows Grass-papyrus from Africa.
Talipot palm from India, Sri Lanka.
When the fruit is ripe at the top of the stem, the plant dies.
A tree called "Cannon ball" is sacred to the Sri Lankans.
Its flowers are brought to the ceremony at the Temple of the Tooth Relic.
This tree is named so because of the fruits that look like a cannonball.
Medicinal garden.
Almost a third of the population of Sri Lanika prefer traditional medicine.
There are about 235 different types of medicinal plants here.
Some medicinal cacti grow on the territory.
Collection of various lawn grass.
There is a wide variety of plants growing here. There are so many that it is not clear where to go and what to see.
These ancient plants grew 300 million years ago.
Outwardly, they look a bit like palm trees. But rarely reach a height above 20 meters.
This tree is called Encephalarthos, grows in South Africa.
These plants are native to Mexico.
From the sugar juice of the agave, the famous alcoholic drink, Tequila, is made.
The path runs along picturesquely rising palm trees.
Another view this time Mexican palms
And here is a very interesting tree that caught my attention. It's called Pandanus Leram.
The grown plant has a very interesting shape.
And here are the fruits of this plant. They are edible.
Bamboo bushes grow everywhere along the road.
On the other hand, flowers
An interesting plant called Tapeworm Plant. The crushed stems of this plant resemble tapeworms, hence the name Tape Worm.
You can walk in the Botanical Garden anywhere. Not only on the paths, but also on the lawn.
Scary cactus.
Many bad people carve their names and various inscriptions on cacti, disfiguring the plant in every possible way. Do the same for bamboos.
Just a beautiful plant.
Slightly deviating from the road, you can see the Mahaweli River itself.
Shrub with unreal flowers. The color shimmered in the sun from pink to burgundy red.
Gradually, the landscape and tree species began to change.
I soon reached coniferous alley. As they call it here "Drunken Christmas Trees".
This is Cook Pine, it grows in Australia on the Cook Islands.
It is noteworthy that they all bend and grow in the same direction, slightly falling to the side.
There is a huge field nearby. As for me, it's very beautiful.
Twigs of Cook's pine.
The first local inhabitant of the park, the Monkey, was walking towards me.
She behaved calmly, dreamily rolling her eyes, rejoiced at the warm sun.
Apparently the monkeys just slipped off them and decided to go for a walk.
The vines are amazing. Their branch structure is very unusual to look at.
Roots protrude from the ground and intertwine with each other underfoot.
But on my way I met a tree, "Hydnocarpus venenata".
It grows only in Sri Lanka and nowhere else.
I reached a rather picturesque bridge across the river. No more than 6 people can be on it at the same time. But few people follow this recommendation and read the signs.
Not far from the bridge, I was met by a road with a graceful Palm Alley.
Height growing here Caribbean Royal Palms, more than 21 meters.
The weather deteriorated, it got dark, clouds were found. The flower buds leaned down.
There was another path next to the Palm Alley, but I didn’t want to get caught in the rain at all, and the time for walking was running out.
A couple of hours later I had a train from Kandy.
I didn't follow her.
On the top of the palm trees hang another inhabitants of the Garden - Flying Foxes. They made such a noise that it was hard not to notice them. And periodically flew from palm tree to palm tree.
He reached the same Huge Field again. But in other way.
Fern with hanging pods.
Fern Life Cycle
At the end of my walk, it began to rain slowly.
But it didn't bother me.
I looked into, perhaps, the most picturesque place in the Botanical Garden. It was very beautiful there.
Flowerbeds, palm trees, and in the center a circular greenhouse. You can feel the hand of the architect who created this part of the park!
Various plants also grow inside the greenhouse.
Watering flower beds, trees and various plants that need moisture comes from a hose.
It is good that in addition to a warm climate and a temperature of +30, it also rains quite often in Sri Lanka. There are rarely dry months here.
In the Botanical Garden grows just a colossal amount of all kinds of vegetation. I have shown only a small part of what is there.
But this was quite enough to feel the beauty that the gardeners created here, nature itself also helped them in this.
This is an unbelievably cool place!
The garden also has an Alley of commemorative trees planted by heads of state and prominent people who visited the country. The first such tree was planted by King Edward the Seventh - the Bo tree.
Then, a tree planted by Elizabeth II. The Ceylon Iron Tree is the national symbol of Sri Lanka, planted by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II in 1891. There is also a tree planted by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Today in Sri Lanka, work is underway to open several more Botanical Gardens.
One of them in the Hambantota region will be the largest in Sri Lanka.
It will be twice as big as this one in Peradeniya.
They are scheduled to open in 2016.
So my walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens ended.
I think this garden is a must visit for anyone who wants to enjoy exotic nature!
I really liked the garden! He is truly Royal!
Be with me free time I would walk there for days.
But there are many more things to see.
And in a couple of hours, a train was waiting for me, heading from Kandy to the small town of Ella.
This will be discussed in my next post.
No matter how much European garden art is praised, the most impressive gardens in the world are in Asia. The point here, of course, is the climate, and Sri Lanka in this sense is a completely blessed land: anything grows and blooms here, and some plants (many extracts, by the way, are used in Ayurvedic cosmetics and medicines) are found only on Ceylon or neighboring India.
(Royal Botanical Garden), located in a town with the name Peradeniya, which is not too euphonious for Russian hearing, is luxurious beyond measure even by Asian criteria, it is not without reason that the fame of one of the best garden ensembles South-East Asia.
A garden is laid out in the center of the island, closest to the garden Big City- Kandy - is located five and a half kilometers, and therefore only those who decide to combine beach holiday in Sri Lanka with a trip around the country.
However, on average, the Royal Garden is visited by about two million tourists a year, most of them are attracted by the opportunity to see a unique collection of rare species of orchids - these whimsical plants have taken root perfectly in Ceylon, and therefore breed and multiply in the Royal Garden without any problems. The Royal Botanical Garden was founded in 1371 by King Wickramabahu the Third. Under his rule, the secular and political life of the island was already concentrated around Kandy, so the decision to set up a luxurious garden on the banks of the Mahaweli River was more than consistent.
In the photo: Japanese garden on the banks of the pond (Royal Garden in Sri Lanka)
However, the garden acquired its present form only in 1821, and the British had a hand in this, having received full power over the island in 1815. The Englishman Alexander Moon took up the design of the garden, and the Sri Lankan gardeners were his auxiliary workers. Plants were brought to the garden from all the surrounding islands and regions. With true British pedantry, Moon divided the garden into themed areas, thus, there was a Japanese garden, a collection of indoor plants, a zone of tropical flora and so on.
In the photo: Japanese garden in the Royal Garden
Girls, of course, will be most interested in the area dedicated to Aurveda, trees grow here, the extracts of which are then included in miraculous medicinal and beauty remedies.
In the photo: a miracle plant in the Ayurvedic zone
Nearby is the local “beauty laboratory”, where medicinal herbs are crushed using wooden grinders in coconut shells or clay bowls. In a word, it doesn’t even smell of any chemistry here, it smells only of herbs and oils.
In the photo: Ayurvedic beauty laboratory
By the way, if you decide to buy something for yourself at home, then keep in mind that Sri Lankan cosmetics are not stored for a long time, and you (whether you want it or not) will have to use all purchases for a maximum of three months - the absence of chemistry in the composition of the funds implies short term the life of creams, so don't take too much.
Of course, measuring beauty by numbers is bad and wrong, but when you talk about the Royal Botanic Gardens, you can’t do without numbers at all. So, the territory of the garden is 147 acres, more than 4,000 species of plants are grown here, there are 175 species of palms alone in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and about a hundred species of orchids.
In the photo: just a few types of palm trees out of 157
In a word, in order to properly examine everything and enjoy the views of a flowering garden, you need at least three to four hours. The garden is curious in a few more ways. Firstly, flying foxes “nest” on local trees, in the daytime they sleep, that is, they hang on trees upside down like big black pears, but if you knock on a tree, these creatures break off the branches and begin to circle around the area, emitting squeaky sounds.
Another curious alley runs along the Mahaweli River, with curved coniferous trees growing on it. The thing is that the wind is constantly blowing from the river, and it blows strictly in a certain direction, so the trees grow curved, which makes it seem as if they are dancing.
In the photo: curved trees in the Royal Garden
The garden also has its own alley of honor, on which trees grow, planted by the great people of their time. Among the greats there are also our compatriots: Tsar Nicholas II and Yuri Gagarin.
The Royal Botanical Garden in Peradeniya is one of the best in Asia. Created in 1821, the garden is located 12 km from the city, in the bend of the Mahaweli River - the largest river in Sri Lanka. The best gardeners in Sri Lanka have broken up the huge hilly area into park areas that reflect different types of tropical flora. Contrast colors ornamental and flowering trees, most of which bloom during the dry season, enchant visitors. One of the amazing areas is a collection of indoor plants (750 species), the advantage of which is the unique shape of the leaves and the variety of colors. But the main attraction of the garden is decorative orchids (about 100 species). The garden is famous for its collection of 175 types of palm trees, and these trees not only decorate the landscape, but also provide a person with everything necessary: food, clothing, shelter, fuel...
In addition to decorative and useful plants, the garden has an alley of memorial trees planted by heads of state and prominent people who visited the country. The first memorial tree was planted by King Edward the Seventh - the Bo tree. The second, the Ceylon iron tree, the national symbol of Sri Lanka, was planted by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II in 1891. There is a tree planted by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. In the garden, there are many trees with strange fruits and unusual flowers, which are of great interest to tourists. Here you will see the giant ficus Benjamin, coconut alley, bamboo thickets, alley of palmyra and cabbage palms, alley of the so-called "drunken firs", ebony tree, breadfruit tree, collection of cycads, royal palm alley, national herbarium, spice garden, Japanese garden, various species of cactus, agave, yucca, dracaena, ferns, ficuses and a sea of flowers.
An integral part of the garden are flying foxes hanging in clusters from trees and flocks of ubiquitous monkeys. Considering the large territory of the garden and the variety of vegetation types, best time for his visit will be the first half of the day. The garden is open daily from 07:30 to 17:30. The cost of the entrance ticket is $10.
The Royal Botanical Gardens is located near the city of Kandy, in a place called "Peradeniya" and is located on 60 hectares of green area. Very close to the garden is railroad station, which is very convenient, after visiting the botanical garden, you can go further to be impressed by the beauties of Sri Lanka.
Since the Royal Botanical Garden in Peradeniya is located 6 km from the city of Kandy, getting here is not at all difficult:
- Taxi (tuk-tuk)
By catching a tuk-tuk in Kandy, you can get to the botanical garden in 20-30 minutes. The cost is 400-500 rupees. It is better to take a taxi with the inscription "Taxi Meter", in this case you will pay for the distance traveled, and not for the time, as there are often traffic jams at the exit from Kandy.
- Bus
At the Clock Tower stop, you need to take bus number 644, or bus number 652 at the Torrington stop. The duration of the trip is 30-40 minutes, the cost of the trip is 20 rupees
- Moped / Car
Also, on your own, you can pave the way in any online maps and get to the Royal Botanical Gardens on your own by moped or car. You can put a moped near the entrance to the garden, we put a moped along the road, for free.
Good hotels in Kandy on Booking:
Good hotels in Peradeniya on Booking:
Visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens
We came to the Royal botanical garden (Royal botanical garden) in the morning at 10 o'clock, put the moped in a free parking lot along the road and went to buy entrance tickets. The cost of tickets for 2016 is 1100 rupees per person, and for locals only 50 rupees. This is a local pattern and a way to make money from tourists - everywhere in all attractions the cost of entry from tourists is 20-50 times more than for locals! Just think what a difference! But since we came to see Sri Lanka with all its sights, of course we paid the money and entered the garden. At the entrance we were given a map of the botanical garden and we decided to follow it and go around the garden in a clockwise direction. 🙂
At the entrance to the garden, the eyes hurt from bright green shades in a good sense of the word, it's so nice to look at this a large number of greenery in one place!
There were few people, so it was even more pleasant to walk. Almost immediately we saw trees and many pink flowers on the grass - Japanese sakura. Beauty and more!
After that we went to the avenue of crooked trees. There are several alleys in the botanical garden and they all have their own name. On the way we met who do you think? Of course, cute monkeys. One of them was sitting on a bench and looked at the people around with interest, but we, of course, looked at her. 🙂
After that we saw an avenue of crooked trees. Very funny alley. Since the trees grow at random, some lean very much to the left, others to the right. 🙂 Such a feeling sometimes arose, as if we were a little drunk and everything was spinning and spinning in our eyes 🙂
By the way, here you can have a small picnic and sit in the shade of trees, relax and have a snack. But we were limited in time and therefore did not stop and went to explore the botanical garden further. The next point of our admiration was suspension bridge over the Mahahueli River. There is a guard's booth in front of him and several people are allowed onto the bridge itself. The bridge is noticeably staggering, well, it's suspended, right? 🙂 We reached the middle of the bridge, here on both sides open beautiful views the river and the surrounding area.
In the photo above, at the very beginning of the bridge, if you look under the bridge, you can see a lot of chipmunks constantly jumping back and forth! We "hung" at this place and watched them for about 15 minutes. They are so cute!
There is also an alley of “overgrown trees”. Some of them even have branches taking root, amazing 🙂
Then we went to look for an alley of palm trees. In advance, back in Russia, when I was exploring the sights of Sri Lanka, I read a lot about the botanical garden in Peradeniya and saw a lot of photos, the main calling card this botanical siege was precisely the avenue of palm trees. 🙂 According to the map given to us at the checkout, we found this alley of palm trees, it is located in the very center of the botanical garden. The alley of palm trees is very beautiful, we went for a walk along it.
But the further we walked along it, the more I realized that in the photo I saw a slightly different alley of palm trees. There the palm trees seemed taller and planted closer together, and the path itself seemed narrower. At first, I couldn't figure out how? Photo hoax?) Looking at the map again, we found another avenue of palm trees, but it was on the outskirts of the botanical garden, and on the way there we almost didn’t meet anyone at all. It seemed to us a little strange, but as soon as we saw this alley of palm trees from afar, everything immediately came together! That's what I saw in the photo! Palm trees are planted closer to each other, they are very tall and the path is narrow! It is here that the effect of tall palm trees and us little people walking along it is created! Judge for yourself!
Very beautiful avenue of palm trees! I liked it much more than the central one! And here they get nice pictures, since people rarely come here, this alley is located on the outskirts of the botanical garden on the opposite side from its entrance and exit. Having walked a lot along this alley, we were about to go to the exit, as the sky was drifting and thunderclouds appeared, it had even begun to rumble! This is generally such a feature, we are in the botanical garden for the third time in different countries and always got caught in tropical downpours. Of course, it didn’t work out this time either, but more on that later. See what beautiful trees grow here, and you will see this only if you walk along all the paths of the botanical garden.
And yes, on the way back we found another alley of palm trees, but there were very few of them, so we quickly passed it.
And this one is already closer to the center, on the way to the orchid greenhouse. It contains more than 100 different varieties of orchids and we certainly wanted to look at them.
We quickly got around central part botanical garden, when it started to rain right away and we ran to the orchid greenhouse, as it is under the roof. You do not need to pay to enter it, it is included in the ticket price.
As a result, we spent almost an hour in the orchid greenhouse, as it rained mercilessly outside, but this is for the best! We examined almost all orchids to the maximum! They are very beautiful, all so different, colorful, delicious smelling.
And these are local schoolchildren, they had holidays and they visited all the sights with us in droves beautiful island Sri Lanka.
