Work starts on American prairie at Wakehurst
Seeds used for the project have been brought over from North America
In what's believed to be the first of its kind project, an American prairie is being created at Wakehurst in Sussex.
The six-acre landscape is being raised from seeds collected in North America.
Iain Parkinson, Living Collections Manager at Wakehurst, said: "The teams have been hard at it for about a week now and we think we've got another two weeks if things go well and the weather behaves itself.
"Next spring the plants we're putting into the ground now will start to grow but of course this will constantly evolve year, after year, after year.
"When we develop landscapes here at Wakehurst, wherever the landscapes are inspired from, we always try and send some of our teams to that part of the world, to get inspiration, to learn about the plant communities and to bring that knowledge back on site.
"We want to demonstrate how habitats across the world are degrading. So by bringing examples of an American prairie, and putting it in this landscape we can draw synergies of some of the problems that grasslands are facing globally".