News
One and only legume tree saved from expressway axe
The controversy over a legume tree – the world’s only surviving species of its kind – standing on the path of a proposed expressway in Gampaha has been sorted out.
The plant species was discovered by the then Royal Botanical Gardens superintendent G.H.K. Thwaites around 1849 at Galpata in Kalutara. He named it Detarium Zeyanicum in his botany book titled “Detarium Plantarium Zeylaniae” . In 1865, another botanist, George Bentham, named the plant Crudia Zeylaniae. It was last found in 1911 and since then it has been considered to be extinct.
A legume plant in the National Botanical Garden Nursery
But in 2019, Sri Lankan botanists made a surprise discovery of the tree in Gamapaha and declared it belonged to the same species found by Mr. Thwaites.
On Wednesdya, Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister C. B. Rathnayake said road constructors had been told to spare the plant and the proposed highway would be built bypassing the tree.
Meanwhile, National Botanical Gardens Director General Dr. Shelomi Krishnaraja said this plant should be preserved. Asked whether this plant could be relocated, she said the issue did not come under her purview, though in botanical gardens some legume plants such as Crudia zeylanica had been relocated.
Deputy Director Achala Attanayake said legume plants could be grown in botanical gardens.