The Great Glasshouse at National Botanic Garden of Wales

This magnificent dome is the world's biggest single-span great glasshouse. The Great Glasshouse, designed by Foster & Partners, sits like a huge raindrop on the Welsh countryside. It is home to some of the world's most endangered plants, which come from six different regions: California, Australia, the Canary Islands, Chile, South Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin. Each of these geographical locations has Mediterranean climate zones. Hot, dry summers, chilly, damp winters, blinding sunlight, strong gusts, and the odd ground-clearing fire all combine to produce ideal circumstances for many plants to thrive in the scrubby, rock-strewn environments.

Despite covering less than 2% of the Earth's surface, these places contain more than 20% of all known flowering plant species, and their richness and plant variety are second only to tropical rainforests in importance. Unfortunately, modern human advancements in agriculture, tourism, housing, and, increasingly, climate change pose a major threat to these plants. At first look, it is difficult to tell that the plants in the Great Glasshouse are from six different countries. This is because they typically share many characteristics, such as thin leathery evergreen leaves and thick shrubby shapes, as a result of adapting in comparable ways to the same environmental constraints.

The innovative flowing environment within the Great Glasshouse on which these plants grow was developed by Kathryn Gustafson. Its rocky terraces, sandstone cliffs, and gravelled scree slopes cover 3,500 square metres and are sculpted to replicate the natural environment and produce a diverse range of habitats, balancing sun and shade and altering moisture levels to meet the demands of different plants.

Location: Middleton Hall, Llanarthne SA32 8HN