Discovery Additions to the Flora of Ceylon by Himesh D Jayasinghe

Thanks to a history of scientific exploration that reaches back 350 years, Sri Lanka's flora has long been assumed to be well known. The national 'indigenous' flowering-plant inventory stands at around 3,087 species, of which some 863 are thought to be endemic. Meanwhile, the island has lost more than 70 percent of its forest cover, with natural forest persisting in only around five percent of the biodiversity-rich south-western 'wet zone'. In 2012, The National Red List assessed five species of flowering plants as Extinct, two as Extinct in the Wild, and 177 as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

That dismal picture took an optimistic turn with the entry into the field of Himesh Jayasinghe a decade ago. The countless days he invested in arduous fieldwork yielded a rich dividend. Three of the officially 'Extinct' species were rediscovered, together with two of those thought to be Extinct in the Wild, and no fewer than a hundred of the 177 species considered 'Possibly Extinct'. Much of the island remains to be explored, and more such discoveries can be expected as hitherto unexplored habitats come to be surveyed.

Lavishly illustrated with more than 4000 colour photographs, the book targets multiple audiences. Here, aided by full-page colour photographs of many of the species, the nature-loving public will find new reasons to celebrate Sri Lanka's spectacular biodiversity. The descriptive text and anatomical illustrations, meanwhile, will aid botanists of the future to formally describe the 150 putatively new taxa introduced here (almost all of which are backed by preserved specimens in the National Herbarium, Peradeniya).
Meanwhile, all 210 taxa can now be considered as deserving the attention of conservation managers.

In short, Discovery: additions to the flora of Ceylon is a milestone in the long and illustrious history of biotic exploration in Sri Lanka.