International Dendrology Society Tour to Sri Lanka
March 2014
The island of Sri Lanka, known variously as Serendib, Taprobane, and Ceylon, lies 650-1.100 kilometres north of the Equator in the Indian Ocean. It has the shape of a tear drop and the contours of a woman’s breast, rising to a central mountain range. The IDS tour of March 2014 covered its four climatic zones: the hot, moist south-west rising to 500 metres, with monsoons from May to September and an annual rainfall of 200-300 cms (80-120 inches); the intermediate zone rising to 1,300 metres, with rainfall of 200-330 cms (80-130 inches); the montane above 1,300 metres in the centre; and a hot, low, dry zone north and east, with rains from November to February fed by monsoons from the north-east.
The island separated from India around 30 million years ago, remaining connected by a land bridge until around the 15th century. Waves of invaders, traders and migrants have left their mark on the landscape of this rich and fertile land, from the Veddhas, related to the aborigines, around 16,000 BC, to the Sinhalese from India, bringing rice-growing techniques in the 5th century. In 246 BC, the Senhalese king was converted to Buddhism. He was one of the 135 kings to rule at Anuradhapura, with those in the first and second centuries AD leaving a legacy of grand irrigation works.
Tamils, Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch and British, who introduced the first plantations, have come and gone, or come and stayed. Introduced in the 19th century, plantations now cover 15% of the island; rice accounts for 8%, natural forests have dwindled to 25% of the land area and not more than 10% of the land is undisturbed.
Monday, 3 March
The IFS Popham Arboretum in Dambulla is a four-hour drive north-west from Colombo. It was established in 1963 by a British tea planter, Sam Popham, who cleared the scrub, but allowed the underlying plants to flourish, thus conserving the unique biological diversity of the dry zone of Sri Lanka. It is now home to around 300 tree species and a wide range of fauna. In Dambulla, a Sanctuary of Tropical Trees, Sam Popham describes eloquently and elegantly the aspirations which drove him. An IDS member, he gave the arboretum to the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy in 1989. It is now managed by Ruk Rakaganno, the Tree Society of Sri Lanka.
Jawantha Amerasinghe, who worked with him and took over as curator in 1999, introduced us to the plants we would meet throughout our tour, with particularly striking examples of Diospyros ebenum, the slow-growing ebony, D. malabarica; Chloroxylon swietenia, East Indian satinwood; and a Madhuka longifolia, honey tree, which has taken over from a Chukrasia tabularis, red cedar, as the largest tree in the arboretum.
Tuesday, 4 March
After the first of three nights at the Sigiriya Village hotel with its fine gardens, we drove to Sigiriya Rock, an imposing gneiss inselberg rising 200 metres above surrounding secondary forests and an ornamental garden, which is one of the greatest single achievements of Sinhalese landscape design. The royal fortress and water gardens on its peak were built in 477-485 AD for King Kasyapa, but abandoned after 18 years and then occupied by monks until 1155. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, it enfolds the Chahr Bagh, a walled enclosure containing a square pool divided into quadrants, with a square pavilion set on a central island. This is the oldest surviving example of what became a popular feature in south Asian gardens, according to David Robson.
On either side of the Fountain Court are pavilions and, behind them, orchards. A raised water garden terrace features an octagonal pond and the Boulder Garden, in its time, housed a lower annex of the palace. On our way to the upper palace and bathing pools, we noted Albizia lebbeck; Alstonia scolaris; Azadirachta indica, the neem tree, invaluable for its pesticide qualities; Berrya cordifolia; Brownia grandiceps; Chloroxylon swietenia; the striking Firmiana colorata; Grewia dameni; Macaranga peltata; Manilkara hexandra; Pterospermum suberifolium, the fishing rod tree; Schleichera oleosa, the Ceylon oak; the graceful but poisonous Thevetia peruviana; and Vitex altissima. The system used to feed the bathing pools and gardens on the rock summit remains a mystery.
From there, we travelled past one of the major tanks used to feed the paddy fields below to Kandalama Hotel which, like the Sigiriya Village, is a creation of the fine Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa.
We spent the rest of the day in Jathika Namal Uyana near Madatugama. The largest ironwood forest in Asia, it dates back to the 8th century. After long neglect, it is a respected sanctuary, thanks to the campaigning by a Buddhist monk, Wanawasi Rahula Thero, whom we met. The ironwood tree, Mesua ferrea, is the national tree of Sri Lanka with flowers similar to a single camellia; the wood has long been valued in temple manufacture, and the tree as a whole is used in traditional, holistic Ayurvedic medicine.
The fauna is said to include everything except bears, lions and tigers. The main threat seems to come from Ficus benghalensis, the strangler fig, which is increasingly evident. At the far side of the forest, the land rises above the tree line, revealing veins of pink quartz. Here, there were isolated specimens of Euphorbia antiquorum, the classic armed tree spurge of India that can grow to 20 metres.
Wednesday, 5 March
North of Sigiriya lies Sri Lanka’s first capital, Anuradhapura, once the greatest monastic city of the ancient world. The Sri Lankan king Mahinda V fled it in 993 AD. Today, it is again one of the most important religious sites in Sri Lanka and, like Sigiriya, a World Heritage site.
The Isurumuniya Temple, next to the Royal Pleasure Gardens, dates back to the 3rd century BC, and has three of the key trees of the island – Caryota urens, the kitul or fish-tail palm; Azadirachta indica, the neem; and a Ficus religiosa. Opposite, tanks were resplendent with Nelumbo nucifera, the Lotus flower, of universal importance to Buddhists and appreciated for its beauty from bud, to flower, and extraordinary seed head.
We proceeded to the precincts of Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, the sacred fig tree venerated by Buddhists in Sri Lanka and respected by Buddhists worldwide. The original Ficus religiosa at the shrine is said to be from the historical Sri Maha Bodhi at Bodh Gaya in India, under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment. It was brought from India and planted in 247 BC. The current tree is probably an offshoot and is described as the oldest living human-planted tree with a known planting date. Outside the shrine were large shrubs of the Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, the night-flowering Indian coral jasmine, also venerated by Buddhists.
West through a park we reached the huge 2nd century BC Ruvanmali Maha Stupa, on a base 200 metres square, guarded by 350 carved elephants. At its entrance were some grand Albizia saman, the rain tree, with a 40 metre spread. One had fallen and been cut, and we counted 140 rings. Mature trees greeted us throughout the south-west of the country, often lining the road, with striking specimens at the University at Kandy and in the old Dutch town at Galle. While in Anuradhapura, we called at the Tissawewa Rest House where the Tectonia grandis noted by Dr Heine had been felled by a storm: we counted 183 rings. The finest tree among a series of fine trees beside the old colonial residence was a Swietenia macrophylla.
Human-elephant conflict
There is ongoing conflict between people and elephants in Sri Lanka. The population of Elephas maximus maximus, a subspecies of the Asian elephant, has fallen to around 3,000, a quarter of the number a century ago. Elephants are safer under the Sri Lankans than under the British – a Major Roberts dispatched 1,000 before himself being killed by what one source described as “a well-aimed blast of lightning”. A day of national mourning was proclaimed in 1988 after the death of Raja, the tusker who carried the relic of the Buddha’s tooth in the annual ceremonies for 50 years. And the courts recently decided that one elephant who had killed two mahoots had acted in legitimate self-defence. However, elephants need space as the natural habitat declines and the corridors between protected areas are encroached upon.
Thursday, 6 March
We drove south from Sigiriya to Kandy, stopping at the Ranweli Spice Garden in Matale to see and purchase the spices for which the island has been famous for a millennium.
Plants included cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum syn zeylanicum, the species mainly found in Sri Lanka; tholabo, Crinum latifolium, also known as poison bulb, which is used as a hair remover; turmeric, Cucurma longa syn domestica; cardamom, Elettaria repens, the world's most expensive spice by weight after saffron and vanilla; the curry tree, Murraya koenigii; nutmeg and its aril, mace, both from Myristica fragrans; the black pepper liana, Piper nigrum; cloves, Syzygium aromaticum; cocoa, Theobroma cacao; vanilla, Vanilla planifolia, a climbing orchid; and ginger, Zingiber officinale.
We lunched at the estate where Ena De Silva, the famed designer, founded a women's cooperative in the late Victorian arts and crafts tradition to make batiks and needlework, along with a brass foundry and wood-carving workshop. The batik work continues, beside a house which is a riot of colour and idiosyncratic design, a mood reflected in the terraced garden looking west over a mosaic of palms and secondary forest.
Friday, 7 March
Kandy was the capital of the Kingdom of Kandy, whose monarchs resisted Portuguese and Dutch invaders for 300 years. It eventually fell to the British in 1815, but has since maintained its position as a centre of Sinhalese culture; it is home to the relic of the Buddha’s tooth and thus a site of pilgrimage.
We stayed at the Hotel Suisse, an imposing building which housed the staff offices of the Supreme Allied South-East Asia Command from 1943-1946. Lord Mountbatten, the Commander, had his residence 8 kilometres to the west at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Peradeniya. We visited these with N. Bandara Palipana, who has worked in the gardens for three decades and written an illustrated guide.
The gardens were first developed in the 14th century as a queen’s pleasure garden and in the 18th century became a Kandyan prince’s residence. In 1821, the flora and economic activities encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks on the coast were relocated and, in the subsequent half century, the garden supported plantation development. Successive directors developed the scientific aspects and, by the start of the 20th century, the framework of this grand botanic garden was established. Many of its trees are thus fully mature, with their canopies and flowers so high binoculars are required.
Mr Palipana walked us to the orchid house, round well-spaced specimen trees, borders and shrubs, down its alley of Araucaria columnaris syn cookii with their wonderful drunken profiles, and across the grand lawns where half the school girls of Kandy were playing in shining white dresses. Dr Heine’s report devotes eight pages to this fine garden, with particular treatment of palms and cypresses.
On the way back is the well-kept garden of the Commonwealth War Graves, bordered by Amherstia nobilis, immaculately tended by the same gardener for the last 30 years, commemorating those of all faiths and nationalities who fell in the island’s defence in 1943.
Saturday, 8 March
We left the mid-level rain forest environment of Kandy at 465 metres and drove up to a cloud forest in the west of the massif. The Dumbara Kanduvetiya, the mist-laden mountains, rise to above 1,800 metres, with particular flora and fauna, much of it above old cardamom groves and, on the lower slopes, extensive tea plantations. We passed slopes shrouded in grand Alibizia lebbeck, an invasive exotic introduced for partial-shade, firewood and fodder. The roadside was decorated with Osbeckia walkeri with its violet cistus-like flowers and, by a river bridge, the indigenous red-berried Ficus altissima var. fergusonii. We saw how tea growers intersperse plants to give up to 30% shade to their Camellia sinensis, using Erythrina variegata, Gliricidia sepium, another aggressive forest-edge colonist from tropical South America whose leaves provide useful fertiliser, or Grevillea robusta, the silky oak from east Australia.
The primary forest in this area is characterized by an absence of canopy. Plants we noted included Ficus racemosa, Gordonia indica, renamed Franklinia indica, and Moonia walkerii.
We saw the large Blue Mormon swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polymnestor, and a rare leaf-nosed lizard, Ceratophora tennentii, an endangered species. We listened to frogs singing like nightingales, and heard about the Loris lydekkerianus, the grey slender loris. These primates have a toxic bite and traders remove their teeth, which often kills them. Two of the four loris sub-species are classed as endangered.
Sunday, 9 March
Sri Lanka is the world’s biggest exporter of tea, with these exports amounting to $1.5 Bn in 2013, 15% of the country’s exports. Tea plantations are critical to the economy; directly or indirectly more than one million people are employed in the industry.
The first tea plant was brought to the botanical garden in Peradeniya in 1824 and the first plantation set up by James Taylor in 1867. The Indian Tamil population, originally brought in for seasonal work on coffee, stayed and expanded along with the tea plantations. At the Orange Field Tea Factory in Panwilatenne, Sebastian Retty, scion of a family firm, described how they process the bud and two top leaves grown and picked by 700 small-scale growers.
The 4-hectare garden at Ellerton, the boutique hotel owned by Cary Goode, our tour leader, continues to expand. We particularly admired an Araucaria cookii; a striking Thunbergia mysorensis, whose burgundy and yellow flowers cascade from a pergola; a fine Erythrina fusca in flower beside the swimming pool; Felicium decipiens, the lucky tree; and a fast-growing Delonix regia, the flame tree.
Monday, 10 March
Kandy was connected to Colombo by rail in 1867 and the section of the Ghat line to Nanu Oya was completed in 1885. The train from Kandy to Nanu Oya, the station serving Nuwara Eliya, at 1,898 metres the country’s highest hill resort, took three hours to cover 161 kilometres. The higher stretches of this line constitute one of the great train journeys of the world, curving through undulating hillsides, over ravines and 19th century viaducts and through impressive tunnels to the highest point reached by a 168 cm (5’ 6”) broad-gauge railway line in the world. The train’s seats can be turned to suit the direction of travel.
Driving on through landscape reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, we arrived at the Hakgala Botanical Garden, where we were met and guided by the Curator, M.M.D.J. Senaratne. The garden, which starts at 1,745 metres, has a subtropical climate, with temperatures from 3 to 15°C (37 to 59°F), receiving rainfall from both the south-west summer and north-east winter monsoons. The garden was established in 1861 to promote cultivation of quinine for the treatment of malaria, but the sole surviving Cinchona succirubra is in a sorry state. The Assam tea hybrid brought to the island in 1867 was propagated here.
There is an excellent collection of local and introduced trees:. an entrance hedge of Cupressus macrocarpa, Monterey cypress; leading to two giant specimens of Syncarpia glomulifera, the New South Wales turpentine tree; in the pond area Araucaria bidwillii; Eugenia cunninghamii; Gordonia axillaris, renamed Franklinia axillaris, with its camellia-like ‘fried egg’ flowers; and the showy Memecyclon umbellata. Higher up a lawn area sported a wonderful wine-fused Michelia fuscata from China; the delicate Michelia nilagirica; and the indigenous Rhododendron arboreum ssp zeylanicum. There was a fine example of Cinnamomum camphora from China; Phoenix reclinata, the Senegal date palm; Tristania conferata, the Queensland box tree; and the witch hazel relative, Exbucklandia populnea.
Particularly striking was a grove of the apricot-barked Meloleuca leucodendron planted in 1883 and the established fernery, home to 50 types of ferns.
Tuesday, 11 March
We had a swooping drive down from the montane environment, reaching Galle, a historic port on the south-west coast, eight hours later. As the crow flies, we had travelled 122 kms, illustrating the time it can take to travel from one point to another in Sri Lanka. The 1957 classic ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ was filmed on the Kelaniya Ganga which we passed en route.
Wednesday, 12 March
Kottawa-Kombala Forest Reserve is a small, isolated, low-level evergreen forest 20 kilometres north-east of Galle. We were hosted by the 83-year old H.B.A. Yayasinghe, a former Range Forest Officer who has been there since 1979. The 15 hectare reserve is home to 191 species, 117 of which are endemic. A slight increase in leaf fall reflects the four-year drought.
Dipterocarpus species and Cyathea tree ferns dominate and there is a vigorous understorey. The canopy is at an impressive 40-45 metres, formed by species such as Dipterocarpus hispidus,, D. zeylanicus and D. glabulosa; and Horsfieldia irya. We were shown Garcina gummigutta, syn G. cambogia which purportedly hardens soft fish and the rare Coscinium fenestratum, tree turmeric or yellow vine, important in traditional medicine as an anti-tetanus treatment, but endangered in many of its habitats. Other trees included Acronychia pedunculata, whose uses range from anti-fungal and perfume to fish poison; Alstonia scholaris, the blackboard tree; the buttressed Canarium zeylanicum from the frankincense family, Burseraceae, endemic to Sri Lanka; Dellenia retusa, used in shampoos; the resin-rich Gyrinops walla used in perfume; the critically endangered Lijndenia capitellata syn Memecylon arnottianum; Shorea ovalifolia, syn Doona ovalifolia, classed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; and the durable Vitex pinnata. We also came across a fine Nepenthes distillatoria, the carnivorous pitcher plant.
At Galle Fort and the naval barracks we found an Albizia saman with a 60-metre spread and an Artocarpus altilis, the breadfruit tree. Closer to our hotel was the attractive Barringtonia acutangela, a member of the Lecythidaceae family, misleadingly called the Indian oak, with its distinctive rhomboid fruit.
Friday, 14 March
Highlights on our last day included visits to a plantation producing cinnamon and mining blue and white moonstone, as well as tours of two contrasting visions of how the richness we had seen could be transformed into gardens.
The first vision was that of Bevis Bawa, elder son of a lawyer with Moorish ancestors and a heiress from one of the Eurasian Burgher families. Born in 1909 and equerry to four British governors, Bevis inherited the family rubber plantation in 1946 and proceeded to build up the gardens.
His ‘Brief Garden’ affords one vista over tumbling lotus ponds between bamboo hedges and a second over a croquet lawn framed by a grand Rambatan. Charming walkways are edged by low palms and colourful ginger, with hidden stone benches and eclectic art at every turn. The house is framed by a Plumeria obtusa, with Cassia javensis, Pterocarpus marsupium, and Syzygium malaccense, the Malay apple, circling the immediate lawn. We encountered the Mesua ferrea; Congea tomentosa, the exotic shower orchid; and, overlooking the croquet lawn, a large Nephelium lappaceum, the Rambutan, a lychee relative.
While Bevis Bawa hosted Vivien Leigh, Lawrence Olivier and Peter Finch, his younger brother, Geoffrey, was striking out independently 10 kilometres to the south on a hill top at Lunuganga overlooking a lake.
Geoffrey Bawa was one of Asia’s most prolific and influential architects and the principal force behind ‘tropical modernism’. The garden he started as Bevis was launching the Brief Garden goes in a totally different direction, with rolling open slopes and long alley-like walks – as if Capability Brown had mentored Geoffrey during his weekend visits to British country houses whilst at wartime Cambridge.
Lunuganga (Salt River), his country home, crowns a hill with the view north over a grassed slope down to a water garden beside Dedduwa Lake. The view west is framed by a Tabernaemontana ventricosa. On the east is a fine Chrysophyllum cainito, the hermaphroditic star apple, and south is Cinnamon Hill, crowned by a Mimusops elengi, the moonamal tree.
The tropical forest, present at every corner of Bevis’s garden, is almost totally absent in the soaring spaces and shade of Geoffrey’s, whose legacy of cool and peaceful space was a fitting closing memory for this 12-day tour.
References:
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Mark Ashton et al, A field guide to the common trees and shrubs of Sri Lanka, WHT Publications, 1997.
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Dr Heino Heine, ‘Sri Lanka, report on the 1995 IDS tour’, IDS Yearbooks, Part I 1995 & Part II 1996
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H.F Macmillan, Tropical Plants and Gardening with Special Reference to Ceylon, 4th edition 1935, Macmillan & Co, reprinted by Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2005.
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F. H. Popham, Dambulla, A Sanctuary of Tropical Trees, published for the Sam Popham Foundation with the support of the IDS and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1993.
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David Robson & Dominic Sansoni, Bawa: The Sri Lanka Gardens, Thames & Hudson, 2009.