Biggest wildflower meadow unveiled

London: Britain's biggest wildflower meadow, covering 20 acres and containing tens of millions of plants, was opened on Friday just yards from the M25.

It is the first phase in a major conservation project called Butterfly World, designed to safeguard London's waning population of the insects.

It hosts 65 different flower species from around the world, including Californian bluebells, Mexican hats and poppies, to create a blaze of colour with 250,000 sunflowers at its centre.

The meadow, at Chiswell Green near St Albans, was created in 12 weeks. Over the next two years, it will also gradually be replanted with British wildflowers. When the project is completed in 2011 it will feature the biggest biodome in Britain, housing thousands of tropical butterflies.

The scheme is backed by naturalist David Bellamy, who said: "This is just an incredible place. You can be in the middle of a quarter of a million sunflowers and really feel like you're in a different world.

"To have it so close to the capital is amazing. Growing up in London during the war, I remember wandering around on my mother's birthday picking wildflowers, which is something you just couldn't do now. Hopefully this is somewhere where today's London children can come and do the same."