Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a teardrop shaped island off the SE coast of India. Wildlife of Sri Lanka includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of biological endemism with 16% of the fauna and 23% of flowering plants being endemic in the world.

Floral Species

The island of Sri Lanka with only a land area of 65500 square km is well endowed with the blessings of mother nature. The whole island is a mass of land where the plant life is very rich and vibrant with all shades of Green colored leaves. There are around 3500 Floral species in Sri Lanka and about one quarter of that is endemic to the country.The vegetation types of the island mainly varies with the climate and the topography. The rainfall and the temperature are the most important factors of the climatic conditions.

There are four major zones of vegetation types in Sri Lanka. The Arid Zone has a temperature between 32-36 degrees Celsius. The Rainfall is below 100 mm per year and the Altitude is less than 300 meters. The forest type is referred as Tropical Thorn Scrub. The Dry Zone has a temperature between 28-32 degrees Celsius. The Rainfall is between 1000-1500 mm per year and the Altitude is less than 500 meters. The forest type is referred as Tropical Dry Mixed Evergreen. The Intermediate Zone has a temperature between 24-28 degrees Celsius. The Rainfall is between 1250-2000 mm per year and the Altitude is between 500-1500 meters. The forest type is referred as Tropical Moist Evergreen. The Wet Zone has a temperature between 16-28 degrees Celsius.

The Rainfall of the Wet Zoneis above 2000 mm per year and the Altitude range is divided in to three categories, Tropical Lowland, Tropical Sub Montane and Tropical Upper Montane.

The vegetation type in the altitude range of between 300-1000 meters is called as Tropical Lowland Wet Evergreen forests. The vegetation type in the altitude range of between 900-1500 meters is called as Tropical Sub Montane forests. The vegetation type in the altitude range of above 1500 meters is called as Tropical Upper Montane forests.