Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanical Gardens

Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka

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Seethawaka Wet Zone Botanical Gardens (also called Seethawaka Botanical Garden) is a relatively new botanical garden in Sri Lanka, created mainly to conserve threatened and vulnerable plant species from the island’s wet lowland forests, especially those associated with the Sinharaja Rainforest region.

Located at Illukowita near Avissawella, about 100 metres above sea level and adjacent to the Indikada Mukalana Forest Reserve, it covers roughly 42 hectares (about 105–106 acres) and experiences a tropical wet climate that suits rainforest flora. The site was formerly a rubber and tea plantation known as “Pannaagula,” development as a garden began in 2008, and it was opened to the public around 2014–2015 as the fifth national botanic garden in Sri Lanka and the first dedicated solely to wet-zone flora.

Besides ex situ conservation and research on wet-zone plants, export floriculture and bamboo, the garden includes themed areas such as a lake and ponds, medicinal and spice gardens, an orchard, fernery, butterfly garden, Japanese-style garden and rose garden, making it both a scientific resource and a scenic recreational space for visitors.