Cornwall holiday post 2 (the plants)

During the week, we visited many plant-friendly places. Cotehele again, and another very special place which is explained a bit later. The picture I took below is a classic example of the neat, well kept patch of National Trust property. I would really like to learn a bit more British plants, so that I can do more posts on them. We had a great day at Cotehele. We had lunch and a pleasant walk around the grounds. The property is near the river Inney and Tamar. There is a great water mill there which produces flour. I definately reccommend it.

On Thursday, we went to the Eden Project. I don't know anyone who has been, but I am sure some of you have. The effort that has been put into the building and planning for the Eden Project is immense, and I reccommend that you pay it a visit. It is very impressive to look at and it is quite surreal. It is comprised of 2 domes or "biomes" (one with a Tropical environment and one with a Mediterranean environment), an education centre called the core, and a white tent/stage in the middle. It is interesting to look at foreign plants as opposed to native plants sometimes.
First, we visited the Tropical Biome The plants vary from little to large, green to reds and browns. The Biome was quite busy, but pleasant. It was very humid, and occassionally, my camera lense steamed up!

This plant is the biggest and smelliest in the world according to the Eden Project website.
A view of the biome from a high position:

Lizards, Frogs and Insect eating birds have all been placed in the Biomes to control the numbers of insects and other pests. Here is one of the Lizards (it is very well camouflaged):
This greenhouse even had a life-like replica of a Malaysian house. It was very real, and I must admit, it makes some of the British plants look very small.

We then went to the cafe, and I had a very delicious vegetable pasty there. After we had eaten, it was time for the Mediterranean Biome. The temperature was a bit more like the British climate. The plants were a bit smaller generally and the plants were a bit less colourful (with a few exceptions), but they were still great to look at. There were more fruit bearing trees here, as well as Cactus, shrubs, and others too. Here are some of them:

This video shows an overview of part of the Mediterranean Biome at the Eden Project: