Welcome to WagaBima
Introduction
Wagabima website is initially built to share the experiences acquired from the small coconut land situated in the remote area in Sri Lanka. The land originally comprised of old coconut trees and some other trees such as Teak, Mahogany, and breadfruit etc. Latter, new coconut plants have been planted under the existing old trees. At the second stage, Banana and Pepper were cultivated as intercrops by dividing the land into two. At present, three major cultivations are ongoing successfully in the land. Accordingly, more pages of website are to discuss the activities undertaken, problems encountered and solutions applied at each stage of purchasing of a land, preparation, choosing and purchasing of plants, cultivating, maintaining and harvesting.
Further, the website displays a selected plant with its image and brief description including value and beliefs prevailing among rural communities in Sri Lanka.It is sure that this will be useful for researchers, students, and farmers, since the availability of some information is very rare.
The cultural and social activities such as legends, games, performances and events which were common to the ancient rural agricultural communities in several decades ago are likely to disappear from the societies at present. However, a few of them are only available with elders living in villages in verbally. some contents of those activities may differ from province to province or district to district or village to village . However, several pages of this site are assigned to such information for the benefits of interested people.
Kathurumurunga (Hummingbird tree)
Mangus trees (Mangosteen in English) are seen in home gardens in several districts such as Kalutara, Colombo, Kegalle, Kandy in Sri Lanka. The plant grows up to 20 meters in height. The bark is yellowish and latex. Hermaphrodite flowers 1-2 in the axils of upper leaves, up to 4 cm diameter. Fruit is globose. When they are ripe, they become glossy purplish. Kern around the nuts is eaten and delicious. Kern is white in color. People believe that fruits signify heat for the human body. However, these delicious fruits are available to purchase in the streets and shops in Sri Lanka during from May to September.
Kathurumuranga is belong to the been family. This tree can be found generally in Sri Lanka all the districts other than hill country. It has short lifetime although it grows quickly. Stem is not firm and therefore it can be broken easily. The tree grows 8 to 10 meters in height. some farmers grow kathumurunga as a commercial crop. They prune the branches to keep the tree in short in tall to make easily plucking the leaves and flowers.
Leaves of the plant are used to make Mallum or Sambol. That is famous vegetable among the Sri Lanka people. Similarly, a delicious food is made by frying flowers of Kathurumurunga. Villagers believe that adding some of kathurumurunga leaves will reduce the warmth of foods such as breadfruit. Consuming the curry made by using kathurumurunga leaves will reduce the burning sensation of the human body. Bunch of leaves or flowers can be purchased at a low price at the markets or from street venders in Sri Lanka.