Management of a Ruthin Wildflower meadow has capped off the perfect environment for a new resident.

The Council’s Biodiversity team has discovered new additions at the end of the 2023 season to the wildflower meadow at Stryd y Brython.

The Council’s Wildflower Meadows Project, funded by Welsh Government through the Local Places for Nature grant, started in 2019 and has seen over 10,000 individual plants recorded across all sites involved so far.

Stryd y Brython is one of the project’s older sites which has allowed time for plants to mature and grow through the management and monitoring of the officers involved with the project.

Early this year, in the habitat created at the meadow, tawny mining bees were discovered nesting on the site.

Now the site has had several waxcap fungi appear on it, blackening waxcap, parrot waxcap and snowy waxcap.

Waxcaps are a declining species due to their preference for growing on unimproved pastures and grasslands that have not been agriculturally improved. They are a familiar-shaped fungi that are mostly brightly coloured and sometimes have a waxy or slippery-looking cap.

The management of the Council’s meadows is aimed at bringing back suitable habitat land lost over the years to support local nature and the wellbeing of surrounding communities by giving better support to under pressure species to survive into the future.

Liam Blazey, Biodiversity Officer said: “This has been really great to see as it shows that the management we are undertaking is not only improving floral diversity but soil biodiversity too.

"Waxcap are really special fungi and we are very excited to see them turning up on one of our sites.”

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, and Biodiversity Champion, said: “The meadows our Streetscene and Biodiversity teams create take time to grow and mature into a habitat that will provide strong support for local nature. Stryd y Brython is such a positive example of what we are aiming to do and give to the community with all of our sites.

“This latest discovery on the site, alongside its flourishing growth of wildflowers and the tawny mining bees, is a strong indication that the team’s meadow management is giving under threat species a second chance to thrive as they did before amongst our many county communities.”

Residents can help support the Waxcap species by taking part in Plantlife’s Waxcap Watch survey.