Eden Project: Tropical Biome

The Tropical Biome is great!!! Not quite like walking in a real tropical rain-forest but a wonderfully good showcase of some of the wonderful richness of plants from those parts.

I loved the way natural shapes and the man-made structure of the Biome roof blend together.

Another appealling feature.....natural space and echoes of traditional cultures responses to it....

here some African wood-spirits

and here some wall painted images by Peruvian vegetalistas (shamanic herbalists)
Then there are is an exploration of the way we use plants......sugar cane....

cocoa (mmm). Interesting to see the cocoa pods growing from the stem....

(and fun to read the story of how cocoa conquered the world from the "mayeux tapestry" painted onto the retaining walls around the cocoa bushes!)
coconuts!

The tropical scene would be incomplete without water, but natural springs in the old clay pit

provide a plentiful supply for that........

So there we have it. That's (most of) my photos from the Eden Project. One more area also kept me interested: "the Core" where all kinds of installations and imaginative displays are aimed at

conveying issues of environmental importance regarding climate change, poverty, excessive wastefulness etc etc. And in case you know feel you've vicariously seen it all here and now need not go yourself:

A) Don't be daft....GO!!!!!!!!

B) There are plans for another indoor Biome for showcasing desert envronments, so its an on-going project, changing all the time, not least with the changing flowering seasons etc.

Eden Project: Warm Mediterranean Biome

Eden Project: Outdoor Biome

I first had the opportunity to visit the Eden Project several years ago with a work holiday.
This year I decided it was time to revisit on my own, and spent a good day touring the three
Biomes with my camera in hand. Well worthwhile!!!

Just outside the entrance hall is this splendid horse sculpure.

Through the ticket hall, and out into the ex-china clay pit, with all spreadout below

Firstly a wander through the "Wild Cornwall Zone"

This stone dome reminded me very much of the beehive stone hut

structures which were once home to Celtic monks on the Skellig Islands off Co. Kerry

and (perhaps) to some Cornish saint-hermits as well....

(I am unsure if this was the intended connection....the stone hut and space-age green houses below make an interesting contrast though!!!)

Its a huge bee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"

"Danger industrial Plant" haha!

A giant indian tends his maize crops....

the WEE Man sculpture made with discarded domestic

appliances
In the spiral garden, sheltering from the onset of rain..
Rain. Good for plants especially in the bog-garden