Seethawaka Botanical Garden is located near Avissawella in the village of Ilukovita in Sri Lanka. This botanical garden covers 79 acres. The park was established as a rubber and tea plantation in the 20th century and belonged to a park called “Pannaagula”. But at the time of the takeover by the Land Reforms Commission, most of the land had been abandoned. The garden was opened to the public in late October 2014 and is one of the most recently established botanical gardens in Sri Lanka. It also aims to improve export floriculture, conserve wetland plants and promote bamboo cultivation.
It serves mainly as a research area and conservation area for threatened and endangered plant species in the Sinharaja rainforest region. Unlike most of the traditional botanical gardens in the country, the Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanic Gardens are mainly composed of plants rather than flowers. The rationale behind the launch of this park is to establish a center for the conservation of wetland lowland forest plants that are critically endangered for future generations. Therefore, Sri Lanka is home to some of the most unknown and endangered wetland plants.
The garden has a cool temperature, and the Kumbuk foliage is large, mainly throughout the garden. You can take a boat ride on the man-made lake using the natural water flow from the nearby hills. The well-paved path leads to the top of the park where visitors can relax a bit and observe the lower park and the surrounding hills. Many trees and plants are marked with a name tag to identify them to visitors. This is a garden that is still developing and has some recently planted plants. The park is open daily from 7:30 am to 5 pm and costs Rs. 50 and a fee of Rs. 1100 for foreigners.
