Srilanka, May 24 -- Several well-grown cinchona plants belonging to a plant species considered extinct in Sri Lanka have been found after 150 years in Unanagala in the western slopes of Aliyagala Mountain Range in Ambagamuwa.

Environmentalist Laxman Kumara said a team of researchers, including himself, found the Cinchona plants in the Aliyagala Mountain Range.

He said the British had cultivated Cinchona in Haggala Botanical Gardens and its environs in 1861 as a cash crop and abandoned it in a short time. It belonged to a plant species extinct in Sri Lanka, leaving only one plant conserved at Haggala Botanical Gardens. However, the environmentalist believes that there could be several plants of this species in the central hills.

He sai...