A PRIMEVAL swamp filled with plants from the time of the dinosaurs has been created at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens.

The unusual landscape feature was inspired by the Jurassic Coast of Dorset and East Devon.

Steve Griffith, curator of Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, said: “The idea is to have plants that have been seen in fossils, ancient plants that have been on the earth since the Jurassic period 150 million years ago.

“What we’ve got here now was once dino-saur food. It’s amazing.

“Dinosaurs have long since disappeared but these types of plants are still here.

“They’ve gone through massive changes of climate and temperature, adapted and survived.”

Plants from across the world now settled in at Abbotsbury include the rare Wollemi pine, thought to be extinct but re-discovered in 1994 in a remote Australian valley.

They also include the Dawn Redwood and medicinal Gingko from China, the scaly tree fern Cyathea australis that feels like a wooden rasp, the startlingly hairy tree fern Dicksonia fibrosa and young Chilean Monkey Puzzle trees.

The swamp is at the bottom of the Subtropical Gardens, in an area previously out-of-bounds to the public, which is crossed by a boardwalk and a bridge.

Mr Griffith said: “It’s got that jungly feel, that primeval atmosphere.

“We cut the path so you’re brushing the ferns and the trunks as you’re going through.

“You’ve got the humidity, the water running through, the sound of running water, the birds.

“It plays on the senses.

“You feel like you’re transcending into a different world down here.”

Mr Griffith said the swamp showed that gardens did not have to be conventional.

“One of the beauties of this is its foliage. It’s evergreen.

“You don’t have to rely on colours and flowers.

“You can get the atmosphere of a garden with shape, and form, and texture, with leaf.”