Search
Search Results
-
Lajos Felföldy: a prominent Hungarian botanist and hydrobiologist
3–25Views:799Lajos Felföldy (1920–2016) was one of the most versatile and open-minded Hungarian biologists. He began his scientific career as a student of Prof. Rezső Soó. Between 1938 and 1946 he participated in geobotanical studies in University of Debrecen and Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). He contributed with important achievements to the development of several biological disciplines. His pioneering study on the effects of air pollution on epiphytic lichens (1942) was among the firsts in the world. He described Hemitherophyte life-form as a discrete unit within Raunkiaer's plant life-form system (1942). He was a pioneer in the cytological (caryological) study of wild vascular plant species in Hungary (1947–1949). His results regarding to primary production of freshwater algae and algal culture (1958–1960) were in leading edge. In 1972 he founded and until 1990 edited the Hungarian series entitled ‘Vízűgyi Hidrobiológia’. Books of this series aimed to publish identification keys of freshwater taxa. These books were proved to be decisive and useful tools for Hungarian hydrobiologists in biological classification of brooks, streams, rivers and different types of stagnant waters. Between 1934 and 2009 he collected more than ten thousand herbarium sheets. After his retirement, he dealt with the revision of the herbarium material of Department of Botany in Hungarian Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden of Eötvös University (Budapest). He participated in the preparation of the New Hungarian Herbal. His scientific work was characterised by deep humility for nature, which was founded on strong theoretical and practical background.
-
In memoriam Kálmán Vánky (1930–2021)
137–139Views:288The author remembers Kálmán Vánky and recalls their personal encounters since 1956. Vánky was a world-famous Székely-Hungarian researcher of smut fungi, an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, who came from Szeklerland (Romania) to Sweden and worked from 1986 in Tübingen (Germany).
-
Ethnobotanical and cultural significance of Chaerophyllum bulbosum in the Carpathian Basin
141–159Views:499Tuberous-rooted chervil (Chaerophyllum bulbosum) is one of the iconic plants in the Carpathian basin regarding ethnobotany. It is considered native to this region and it is known by about one hundred different Hungarian folk names and allophones. We have plenty of historical data about its gathering from the wild from the end of the 16th century, but certainly, it could have been collected much earlier by the people who lived here. In the whole Carpathian basin, mostly its tubers (and rarely the leaves as well) were gathered mainly by children, which were eaten in various forms and dishes, but most frequently raw as salad. Its popularity started to decline by the end of the 19th century, and in the middle of the 20th century, it was regarded as one of the ‘beets out of fashion’, which was slowly disappearing from the diet. From the 21st century, there is only one record about its gathering and consumption from Transylvania. In former times, along with other Chaerophyllum and Anthriscus species it was recommended to cure scorbute and diarrhoea and as a poultice for ulcers. In the Middle Ages, it was cultivated throughout Eastern and Central Europe, which could have also been true for the Carpathian Basin. Master Roger mentioned this species among the plants of devastated peasant gardens (1243, after the Mongol invasion). Thereafter, we have records only from the middle of the 19th century showing the obvious growing of its cultivated variety (called ‘chervil-beet’). However, its cultivation remained quite sporadic, and by the middle of the 20th century, it was already fully neglected. The plant occurred in Hungarian cookery books from the 16th century, especially in Transylvanian gastronomy. The remembrance of its former folk uses retained in Hungarian culture as well, it emerges in several poems and prose.
-
Sándor Polgár and the research of the adventive flora of Hungary
188–197Views:434In the 20th century Sándor Polgár was one of the most outstanding researchers of adventive plant species in Hungary. He wrote nine publications in this theme. In the industrial environment of his home town Győr (NW Hungary) he found tropical species, most of them were southern-American origin. The richest alien flora came around the oil factories of the town. He reported 65 taxa new for the Hungarian flora, four of them were new for Europe too. He was a great expert of problematic Solanum, Amaranthus and Chenopodium genera.
-
The Wildflower of the Year campaign in Hungary
349-353Views:429The paper summarizes the previous history and recent purposes of the ‘Wildflower of the Year’ initiation, established in 2011. The main aim of this initiation is the promotion and familiarization of Hungarian flora, applying a public awareness campaign about the beauty, importance and ecological value of our spectacular wild plants. The ’Wildflower of the Year’ is selected by voting on internet (www.evvadviraga.hu). Starting from this volume the journal Kitaibelia publishes a monograph about the wildflower of the previous year.