Country diary: Fungi season is here, so I head – yes – to the beach | Nigel Brown

Aberffraw, Ynys Môn (Anglesey): Plenty of fungi can be found among the sand here; in fact it is vital to keeping the dunes at bayDapperlings and toughshanks, bonnets and brittlegills, bird’s nests and fairy clubs. Fungi season has begun, and for me it is heralded by the “fungus foray” held at Bangor University’s Treborth Botanic Garden. An annual event, this year it produced more than 200 species in just 90 minutes, thanks to the 225 forayers who took part.Among the feast of colour and form was one I’d never seen in 50 years of foraying – orange ping‑pong bat fungus (Favolaschia calocera), glowing vivid along a fallen twig. Climate change is implicated in its rapid global spread, and it was first recorded in the UK only in 2012. Every year, the botanic garden’s foray turns up something special. Continue reading...