Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya
147 acres in a loop of the Mahaweli river outside Kandy — over 4,000 plant species, an orchid house and the great avenues of palms.
- Altitude
- 460 m
- Coordinates
- 7.271°, 80.596°
Current Weather
The Royal Botanic Gardens lie about 5.5 km west of Kandy, at 460 metres, inside a loop of the Mahaweli — Sri Lanka's longest river, which wraps around three sides of the grounds. At 147 acres (59 hectares) they are the largest botanic gardens in the country and among the finest in Asia.
From a Kandyan royal garden to a colonial institution
There had been a garden on this site under the kings of Kandy. The scientific institution began later: Alexander Moon laid the groundwork in 1821, and the gardens were formally established in 1843, stocked with plants transferred from Kew and elsewhere. George Gardner took over as superintendent in 1844 and expanded the collection substantially. They are run today by the Department of National Botanic Gardens.
What is here
Over 4,000 species, and the gardens are best known for their orchid collection — the orchid house is the single most-visited building on the grounds. Beyond it are the great planted avenues: Cook's Pine, Palmyra Palm, Double Coconut, Royal Palm. The Javan fig spreading over its own lawn is the tree everyone photographs, and a cannonball tree planted by King George V and Queen Mary in 1901 is the one with the label worth reading.
The gardens are genuinely popular rather than merely touristic — 1.2 million local visitors to 400,000 foreign ones in 2016. Sunday afternoons are busy and cheerful. Allow two hours; three if you walk the avenues properly.