In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List delivered a grim verdict on endemic Pini- Beraliya, the towering dipterocarp Doona ovalifolia (syn. Shorea ovalifolia) tree by categorizing it as “extinct in the wild.” For decades, the species was known mainly from a single cultivated specimen in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya in central Sri Lanka. That solitary tree, rising above the landscaped grounds, became a living relic of a vanished rainforest giant, a symbol of both loss and the faint hope that somewhere, perhaps, the species still survived.

The first clue that Pini-Beraliya might still exist in the wild surfaced unexpectedly via a Facebook post. In May 2018, a member of the Facebook group “Medicinal Plant Identification” posted about the tree, requesting the group’s hundred thousand members to report any sightings. Within hours, Lasith Prageeth from Ayagama in Ratnapura district responded, “We have this tree in our village.”

To read the full story visit https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/social-media-post-sparks-rediscovery-of-endemic-sri-lanka-rainforest-plant/

Photo credit: Dilmah Conservation