Sri Lanka Flora/Fauna

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This section features the plants and animals of Sri Lanka including Sri Lanka tea,
macaque monkeys, Asian elephants, leopards, jackals, boars, Sambar deer and crocodiles.

A Red Faced Macaque, Yala NP

Sri Lanka is a teardrop shaped island off the SE coast of India, and is geographically part of the vast region known as the Indian Sub-continent.  While its extremes in climate and terrain are not nearly so immense as those of the whole sub-continent (which includes deserts, coastal marshes and the highest reaches of the Himalayas) Sri Lanka does have several distinct eco-regions.  We traveled throughout the country's verdant hills and along the western southeastern coasts which are dotted with marshes and small inland lakes.  The country has over 90 species of mammal (including elephant, leopard, bear and monkeys), hundreds of butterflies, over 80 snake species (including deadly cobras and vipers), and about 435 species of birds.

The colorful Green Bee-Eater

Sri Lanka has the distinction of having the world's oldest recorded wildlife preserve.  More than 2000 years ago, in the 3^rd century BC, a region in north central Sri Lanka was set aside by royal decree to be free of all hunting.  Today, more than 8% of the land is preserved as national park or nature preserve.  If you want to visit Sri Lanka it's best to get information on the state of the civil war there. We visited despite a US State Department Travel Advisory and had to troubles.  But it's potluck.  Colombo is the capitol and the main gateway into the interior.  As sailors, we arrived in the port of Galle, on the SW coast.  The town of Kandi (and other hill towns) are great for bird watching, and Yala National Park on the SE coast is a superb area for wildlife.  You can learn more on our Sri Lanka Home and Sri Lanka Interior Newsletter pages.

Check out our pages on the birds of Sri Lanka and another of the other animals of Sri Lanka.

FLORA OF SRI LANKA

Fragrant frangipani, not a native, but common

Tropical rainforest covers  much of the southwestern part of the island, where teak and ebony grow. Orchids abound in the lush forest.  The hills in central Sri Lanka have the perfect climate for tea cultivation and whole hillsides are dedicated to growing this compact, dark-leafed camellia for its fragrant leaves.  It is in the cool hills that most of the commercial vegetables such as peppers, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce are grown.  The coasts are more arid, with low scrub and grasslands, and it's here you'll see tall coconut palms lining the roads.  Outside of the city, most homes have their own stands of papaya and mango trees, banana plants, breadfruit and jackfruit trees.  Many of the ornamental plants that adorn temples and homes are not native to the Indian Sub-continent but are so familiar now that their origins seem unimportant.  Indeed lantana, with its clusters of red and orange blossoms on a prickly shrub, is a native of the Americas but now grows in almost impenetrable thickets in parts of Sri Lanka.  The fragrant frangipani, originally from the West Indies, with its white/yellow or pink flowers, is a common tree found outside homes and temples throughout the country.