Beauty Of Horton Plains [Post # 04]

Newly constructed Bungalow and Entrance area
This shows the Thorny nature of Ulex europeus.
Flower of a Polygonum sp. [Ladies thumb]

Beauty Of Horton Plains [Post # 03]

This is an open grassland area of Horton plains which is dominated by Chrysopogon zeylanicus [Gavra]. It forms large clumps.
This is Arundinaria densifolia [Kuru Una] It is endemic to Srilanka. This is one of the main foods of sambur, especially young leaves.
This is Ulex europeus introduced to Horton plains from Britain. It is an invasive plant.

Beauty Of Horton Plains [Post # 02]

This is a flower of Tibouchina sp. It is a genus of about 350 species of neotropical plants in the family Melastomataceae. They are trees, shrubs or subshrubs growing 0.5-25 m tall, and are known as "glory bushes" or sometimes "glory trees".
This is Sri Lankan Sambar Deer (Cervus unicolor unicolor). This subspecies is one of the largest Sambar Deer species with the largest antlers both in size and in body proportions. Large males weight up to 270-280 kg.These are some shots near the entrance to Horton plains.

Beauty Of Horton Plains

We started our journey to the Horton Plains from Kandy. These are some road side sceneries on the way to Nuwaraeliya, Including the waterfall near Ramboda.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest Post # 08

These shots are to give some idea about the fauna of the forest. Two fish species shown here are Tiger loach and Comb tail.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest Post # 07

These are some random shots of the forest.



These are some random shots of the forest.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest Post # 06

These four species are endemic to srilanka.Schumacheria castaneifolia [Yellow flowers],Elaeocarpos subvillosus [green fruit], Strobilanthus sp. [Pink flowers] and Osbeckia octandra [Single pink flower].
Osbeckia octandra is HEEN BOVITIYA and the similar flower provided below is the MAHA BOVITYA, which is not endemic [Melastoma malabathricum]. Elaeocarpos subvillosus is known as GAL WERALU and Schumacheria castaneifolia is known as KEKIRI-WARA. 

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest Post # 05

These are some sceneries inside the forest. these areas receive rain 24h x 7 days, In these photos you can see the clear stratification of the forest and the characteristic trunk of NAVANDA trees etc.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest Post # 04

These are some common types of FUNGI that can be found in Sinharaja. Since I am not in to Fungi I do not know their names. There are large numbers of fungi species in the understory of forest due to the presence of moisture.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest - Post # 03

In this photoset I am showing some features of Shorea stipularis, Zingiber zerumbet and Clerodendrum sp.
In the Clerodendrum sp. Red colour sepals are visible, but petals [White] are no longer available. That means it is ready to fruit.
There are 2 photos showing features of Shorea stipularis. First feature is the presence of nice greenish to yellow stipules [like small leaves] near the leaf petiole. Second feature is the large cylindrical trunk. Shorea stipularis is ENDEMIC to srilanka and can be found in the canopy level of Primary forests of Sinharaja.
Finally I have shown you a flower of Zingiber zerumbet [White to green]. This is a shrub.

Beauty of Sinharaja Rain Forest [Post # 02]

This is another photoset captured by me in my time there. Here you can see the fruit of Garcinia quaesita, immature leaves of the Dipterocarpus zeylanicus [Hora], a fruit of Rubus sp. [Wild berreis] and finally a beautiful flower of Melastoma malabathricum
Among these species Garcinia quaesita, and Dipterocarpus zeylanicus are ENDEMIC to SRILANKA

Beauty Of Sinharaja Rain Forest

This is how I capture some moments of Sinharaja when I was there in 2007 [2007-07-26]. In these pictures you can find the Common wood spider, Arundina graminifolia, Nepenthes distillatoria [endemic to Srilanka] and a fruit of Melastoma malabathricum.