In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List pronounced the towering Doona ovalifolia tree “extinct in the wild.” Known locally as pini-beraliya, the species lingered only as a single cultivated specimen in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya. For years, that lone tree stood as a melancholy reminder of what had been lost.
The species’ unlikely revival began in 2018, when a Facebook post in a medicinal plant group prompted a villager from Ratnapura district to declare, “We have this tree in our village.”
At first, botanists doubted the claim; related species are easily confused for one another. But photographs of the leaves raised eyebrows, and when flowers were eventually obtained by a daring tree climb, experts confirmed the identification. Since then, two more wild populations of pini-beraliya have been found, all near rivers or streams, reports Mongabay contributor Malaka Rodrigo.
Conservationists moved swiftly. Dilmah Conservation, the nonprofit arm of one of Sri Lanka’s top tea producers, established a nursery that has already raised more than 250 saplings. Schoolchildren in Ayagama village were given seedlings to plant, turning conservation into a lesson in pride and stewardship.
Ecologists say that saving pini-beraliya is about more than preserving a single species. As a keystone of Sri Lanka’s lowland rainforests, its return bolsters entire ecosystems. From near oblivion, a chance rediscovery has restored both trees and hope.
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Banner image: The flowers of the pini-beraliya tree. Image courtesy of Dilmah Conservation.
