Don't throw stones...

...if you live in the biggest single-span glasshouse in the world.

Rather than the usual steamy tropical plants (plenty of those in the nearby Plas Pilipala or butterfly house), this one is devoted to 'Mediterranean' climates, which apparently cover 2% of the world's land area but support 20% of all known flowering plant species. Different zones are climate controlled to reproduce conditions in California, Western Australia, the Canaries, Chile, South Africa (the Cape) and the Mediterranean basin. (The conditions replicated do not presumably include the fires which are essential to germination for certain plants.)

The house was designed by Norman Foster and Partners. A few local birds find it an attractive place on a cold day (there was a robin down by the pool). They don't live in the house, and they don't throw stones either.

In extras, a slice of the multi-level structure, complete with blipper.