Sal saplings to all temples

Priyanka KURUGALA

The National Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya has launched a programme to distribute genuine Sal saplings to all temples countrywide as an environment friendly project, National Botanical Gardens Director General Dr. Sirl Wijesundara said.

Wijesundara said, under this project around 1,500 Sal saplings were raised at the Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya.

The project was implemented under the direction of Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa, and facilitated by Sumith Nakandala, former Sri Lanka ambassador to Nepal.

Around 900 temples have been provided with Sal saplings in 21 Districts countrywide, he said.

The Sal seeds were brought from Nepal and planted at the Peradeniya Botanical Garden premises, he said.

It is believed that Prince Sidhdhartha was born under a Sal tree at a Sal garden in Lumbini, Nepal.

The tree is known as Sal in Nepal and in India it is Shorea robusta. This tree is related to hal, hora, beraliya, dun etc in the family Dipterocarpaceae, he said. Unfortunately, a totally different tree is commonly being refered to as Sal in Sri Lanka. It is known as the cannon ball tree in English. Its botanical name is Couroupita guianensis.

'Cannon ball tree is native tree to South America and the Southern Caribbean and belongs to the family Lecythidaceae (Brazil nut family), he said.

'The cannon ball tree was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1881 by the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya. This tree bears fragrant beautiful flowers in an unusual shape. A few decades after its introduction people began to treat it as 'Sal' and the tree was introduced to temples and public places in Sri Lanka, he said.

'Even though a few people know that it was not the species of tree under which Queen Mahamaya gave birth to Prince Sidhdhartha, majority is unaware about this fact, he explained.

'To rectify the error, Indian Sal seeds were brought from Nepal by the National Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya in 2008, he said.