Wax Caps and Workshops: Plant Science Wales 2025

by Alan Cole · Published Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 · Updated Thursday, October 30th, 2025

I somehow ended up coordinating the Plant Science Wales Meeting at work. Somewhat stressful, but it all came together in the end — and it meant a trip down to Carmarthen last week. It was a joint event organised by IBERS, hosted by the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and supported by the Learned Society of Wales. The idea was to bring together plant scientists from across Wales for networking and to share what everyone’s been working on.

With the speakers in place and logistics sorted, I was actually able to relax a little once there and just let it all happen around me — while taking notes for the report afterwards of course. The first day was the drive down, followed by behind-the-scenes tours of the Herbarium and its collections, the seed bank, and some of the wildflower meadows and pastures, including the impressive wax-cap fungi that were on show at this time of year.

We then had some free time to wander the gardens before heading off to a cheap and cheerful Travelodge in nearby Cross Hands, and a good dinner at a local Indian restaurant.

The second day was full of talks and presentations on all aspects of plant science. It all seemed to go well, and everyone left feeling positive about the future of the Plant Science Wales network. Now to start planning for bigger and better events.

It was a nice change from the usual day-to-day work, and satisfying that it all went so smoothly.