Natural delicacy delights nature recovery work

A nature recovery habitat project has already served up a special delicacy early in the season.

Denbighshire County Council recently launched the seventh year of the Wildflower Meadows Project.

Established in 2019, the project includes approximately 70 acres of native wildflower habitat supporting local nature and helping community wellbeing across the county. It has also been funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Places for Nature funding.

Last year several of the wildflower meadows saw a resurgence in orchid species growing for the first time across the county.

For 2026, the Council’s Biodiversity team has already found a new ‘resident’ at a town-based meadow that can be a highly sort after delicacy on any chef’s menu.

The team located a number of morel mushrooms at the site which are a highly sort after edible mushroom, which must always be cooked before eating. They eject their spores to repopulate unlike normal mushrooms that are found in the ground.

Morel mushrooms have also been found to have medicinal properties and have been used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The find shows that the long-term aim of maturing meadows across the county is moving forward thanks to the work of the project.

Liam Blazey, Senior Biodiversity Officer said: “Finding this great looking mushroom has been brilliant as it indicates that the management we have undertaken with our Streetscene colleagues is not only improving floral diversity but the soil biodiversity as well, as demonstrated by this new meadow resident.”

Emlyn Jones, Denbighshire County Council's Head of Planning, Public Protection and Countryside Services, said: “Each of our meadows take time to grow and mature into a habitat providing strong support for all local nature. Finding the morel mushroom is a positive example of how the soil management of our sites is allowing more species the chance to thrive and survive on our meadows.”