''Dipterocarpus zeylanicus'', commonly known as හොර - Hora in Sinhalese and සරල - Sarala or කිරිපලු - Kiripalu, is a species of ''Dipterocarpus'' that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. A closely related Indian species is '' Dipterocarpus turbinatus''. The Sri Lankan tree is a large tree that grows up to tall and in circumference. The bark is light pinkish brown or light yellowish brown. Leaves are big and oval, long. The sharp-edged leaves are covered with silver hairs. Flowers bloom in April and seeds have two wings to spread from wind. The bark contains considerable amounts of gray colour oleoresin. ''D. zeylanicus'' can be found in moist low country like

Ratnapura Ratnapura (, ; , ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is loca ...

, Kaluthara,

Galle Galle (, ; , ) (formerly ) is a major city on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, south of Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern Province, Sri Lanka and is the capital of Galle District. Galle was known as ''Gi ...

and

Matara District Matara ( ''Mātara distrikkaya''; ''Māttaṛai māvaṭṭam'') is a district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a Di ...

s and also in the Sinharaja rain forest. The tallest (nearly ) trees of Hora in Sri Lanka are found in Udakiruwa village in

Lunugala Lunugala is a town in the Sri Lankan province of Uva. There are 28 Grama Niladhari Divisions in the Lunugala Divisional Secretariat Division The town is placed in middle of a mountain range. It was called "Pattipola" () in the past. Its main a ...

and under great threat of legal/illegal felling. There are many place names which begin with the name of the Hora tree. Even Tamil place names like ''Norochcholai'' (where a controversial coal power plant in Sri Lanka is located) is said to refer to a clump of Hora trees - i.e., "Horagolla" in Sinhalese.https://d-web.org/place.names/index.html It is used as a strong and hard wood and a weight of . The heartwood is light pinkish to dark reddish brown. After a preservative treatment, it is used for railway sleepers, rafters, electric posts, beams, joists, heavy types of carpentry work, and eminently suitable for underwater work. In

Theravada Buddhism ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' ( anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or '' Dhamma'' in ...

, the tree is said to have played the role of the Bodhi tree for a Buddha of a previous epoch, viz., the thirteenth

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

known as "Padumuththara - පදුමුත්තර".

References

* zeylanicus {{Dipterocarpaceae-stub