Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence of vegetation is an important parameter in evaluating plant photosynthesis. A hyper-spectral imaging spectrometer prototype is presented for the fluorescence observation of vegetation in a wide area. The main transmission optical system of the imaging spectrometer is based on the key dispersive element composed of prism and volume phase holographic transmission grating. This form could realize high performances under the high numerical aperture (0.25). The prototype has an angle spatial resolution of 1 mrad, a spectral resolution of 0.3 nm, and an signal-to-noise ratio better than 100 in the waveband of 670‒780 nm (it can be extended to 650‒800 nm) and the full field of view of 20°. The results of the design, test results of the prototype and analysis results of application data show that the imaging spectrometer can satisfy the requests of the design. The instrument can supply important scientific data for the agriculture monitoring and forests and carbon cycle observation, and it can be considered as a new observation method for the land vegetation photosynthesis.