During an algal survey of the peat moss transition bog near Kőszeg, in the Alsó-erdő, which started nearly three years ago, a new, previously unregistered species, Ducellieria chodatii (Ducellier) Teiling, was found in spring 2022. As a pine pollen parasite, its appearance can be linked to the recent increased pollen production in the surrounding pine and pine-mixed stands. Both morphologically and in terms of the environmental conditions of the biotope, the results of the studies were largely con­sistent with previous relevant data in the literature. Differences from previous literature are the lower spatial depth of the habitat and the high conductivity of one of the sample sites. All this knowledge, together with the accompanying photographs, is intended to serve as a contribution not only to re­search on the native occurrence of D. chodatii, but also to research on the morphological, taxonomic characteristics and ecological requirements of the species.

Due to the geomorphological situation and climatic conditions of Hungary, true montane climate is restricted to very few and small areas of higher elevation, with the highest peak (Mt Kékes, 1014 m) in the Mátra Mountains (North Central Hungary). During a bryofloristical survey in this re­gion, a few cushions of a Boreo-arctic montane bryophyte species, Hymenoloma crispulum (Hedw.) Ochyra (syn.: Dicranoweisia crispula (Hedw.) Milde), was discovered at the steep northern slope of Mt. Kékes in an andesite boulder scree with cool and humid microclimate. H. crispulum is new to the Hun­garian bryoflora and fits in well with other co-occurring vascular and cryptogamic taxa of northern-montane affinities. The population is very small and vulnerable, therefore it should be rated 'critically endangered' (CR) in an updated national red list.

Until now, the genus Sphaerocarpos, which can be recognized at first glance due to its characteristic appearance, was represented in Hungary by S. europaeus only, for which a single old record exists. In January 2022 the other widely distributed European congener, S. michelii Bellardi, was discovered on an arable field of lucerne in Somogy county. We report the habitat characteristics of the single known population of S. michelii in Hungary, describe the morphology of the species and deal with the differentiation of the two Sphaerocarpos species. In order to facilitate species identification, we include light and electron micrographs showing essential details of the spore surface of S. michelii.

Torilis nodosa (L.) Gaertn. is an Atlantic-Mediterranean weed species. Its old data are known from Budapest, but these may have been occasional occurrences, the species has not been confirmed in Hungary for more than a hundred years. In the last few years, we have found six new occurrences of the species in Hungary, one population in Budapest, and another five in some settlements on the northern shore of Lake Balaton. The species was observed in ruderal or intensely mowed urban habitats, in all cases. Intensive tourism has a role in its introduction for sure, but for the survival of self-sustaining stands and in its already perceptible regional spreading, the climate change trends, the increasingly mild winters, and the decreasing number of frost days could also be important. New data from Hungary are well connected to its other Central European observations.

Kurgans are ancient burial mounds built by nomadic steppic cultures across Eurasia.
These monuments are important cultural landmarks, and often also preserve the remnants of dry grasslands even in intensively used agricultural landscapes. In the past centuries, many kurgans have been ploughed and their vegetation has been destroyed. Due to their recent inclusion in the agrienvironmental schemes in Hungary, crop production has been ceased on many kurgans in the past years. Here we present an interesting botanical discovery which we made during our country-scale survey of spontaneously recovering grasslands on kurgans. We discovered a large population of approximately 15,000 shoots of the protected loess grassland plant Prunus tenella Batsch (syn.: Amygdalus nana L.) on the Fekete-halom kurgan near Tiszainoka, in the centre of the Great Hungarian Plain. The mound had been used as an intensive cropland until 2014. Most probably, the plants could re-establish from some hidden shoots that could persist in the refuge provided by the concrete elements of a geodesic mark, and after the cessation of ploughing it could expand onto the north and west-facing slopes of the mound by sprouting and by germination from the persistent soil seed bank. Besides the conservation importance of this floristic discovery, it also suggests that spontaneous regeneration can be an effective restoration measure and that kurgans abandoned from agricultural cultivation can serve as suitable habitats for rare and endangered species.

Areas with  alkaline and saline (solonetz and solonchak) soils occupy substantial areas in the westernmost, Trans­danubian part of the Great Hungarian Plain (Mezőföld). To this date, the flora and vege­tation of only two localities have been studied in some detail, while the rest has remained largely unknown in this respect. In this paper, I provide brief descriptions of these little-known areas and present a list of halophytes with distribution data from the last 17 years. The names of the plants are followed by the name of the township and the geographical location where the plant was found, the code of the grid cell of the Central European Flora Survey grid that includes the location, and in selected species, the year when the species was first recorded. The list is arranged in alphabetical order irrespective of taxonomy. The occur­rence data indicate that the floras of these saline-alkaline areas represent only subsets of, but in combina­tion are almost identi­cal to the overall flora of similar habitats in the Sárvíz plain.

Our article provides data of 186 spreading cultivated taxa in Hungary. Among these, the spreading of 40 species in botanical gardens was not known until now. During our work, we examined the arboretums of Ti­szakürt, Szarvas and Erdőtelek, the agrobotanical garden of Tápiószele (located in the National Centre for Biodiversity and Gene Conservation), the botanical garden of the Eszterházy Károly Catholic Uni­versity in Eger and the De la Motte Castle Park in Noszvaj. We collected further data on the lately iden­tified Cardamine occulta and the spreading Veronica peregrina taxa, which spread mainly through plants sold in pots. Besides the already known two Juglans species, we found four new potentially spreading ones from the family of Juglandaceae (Carya cordiformis, C. ovata, Juglans cinerea and J. microcarpa). We also found seedlings and saplings in the case of all the investigated Abies species. We found the seventh Hungarian occurrence of Ludwigia grandiflora in the artificial lake of the Arboretum of Szarvas. The quantity of new occurrences reported in this paper highlights the need for further research in living collections in Hungarian botanical gardens.

We studied the phytosociological characteristics of hornbeam and turkey oak dominated forests growing on sand at the southwestern foot of the Pilis Mountains. Here we present the results of analyses of 10 relevés of each community. The species composition of the hornbeam forest samples is characterized by a relatively high proportion of Fagetalia species. Notable species in the community are Aconitun vulparia, Berberis vulgaris, Epipactis helleborine agg., Galanthus nivalis, Geranium lucidum, Lilium martagon, Omphalodes scorpioides, Piptatherum virescens, Primula veris, Scilla vindobonensis, Sorbus aria agg., S. domestica, Veratrum nigrum, and Waldsteinia geoides. In the turkey oak forests, species characteristic of the class Quercetea pubescentis-petraeae have the hig­hest proportion. Notable and locally typical species occurring in the community are Anthericum ramo­sum, Digitalis grandiflora, Iris variegata, Piptatherum virescens, Primula veris, Achillea distans, Dictam­nus albus, Galanthus nivalis, Lonicera xylosteum, Scilla vindobonensis, Sorbus domestica, Veratrum nigrum, as well as Lunaria annua and Tilia tomentosa that are possibly introduced here. Based on the results of statistical analyses, the two forest communities are best identified with the associations named Corydali pumilae-Carpinetum and Fraxino orno-Quercetum cerridis, both occurring in the Transdanubian Mountain Range.