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Discovery of a new large population of Prunus tenella on a young old-field suggests remarkable regeneration ability of the species
32-38Views:302Kurgans 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. -
Short communications
168-174Views:2171. Occurrence of Lycopodium clavatum L. in 'Egri-Bükkalja' microregion (NE Hungary)
2. Contribution to the urban flora of Debrecen (E Hungary)
3. Contributions to the distribution data published in the Atlas of Hungarian Orchids
4. New occurrence of Sisyrinchium bermudiana L. in the Carpathian Basin (Transylvania, Romania)
5. Occurrence of Myagrum perfoliatum L. near Mezőberény town (East Hungary)
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Short communications
257–266Views:5801. Occurrence of Ophioglossum vulgatum in a dry loess grassland in the Tiszafüred–Kunhegyes plain (Great Hungarian Plain)
2. Dolomite rocky grassland species introduced by raw materials of a road construction (Kecskemét, Great Hungarian Plain)
3. Geranium divaricatum on the Hevesi-sík, next to Füzesabony (Great Hungarian Plain)
4. Ophrys sphegodes in the Castriferreicum (W Hungary)
5. First occurrence of Cephalanthera longifolia var. rosea in Hungary
6. Spiraea crenata in the Eastern Bakony Mts (Transdanubian Range, Hungary)
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Mondró-halom kurgan (Hencida, East Hungary), a refugium of loess grassland vegetation
143-149Views:485Fragments of the natural grassland vegetation are often preserved only in those areas which are inadequate for arable farming. In many cases kurgans hold the last remnants of dry grasslands in lowland areas, like the Great Hungarian Plain. They also have an essential role in preserving cultural and landscape values. Moreover, they harbour several rare plant and animal species. Our aim was to explore the vegetation of the Mondró-halom kurgan (Hencida, East Hungary). Altogether we found 74 vascular plant species in the loess grassland of the kurgan. Several rare species of the Bihari-sík region, such as Inula germanica, Ranunculus illyricus and Rosa gallica were also detected. The steep slopes of the kurgan with various micro-sites and exposures supported a species-rich vegetation. Instead of its small area it harboured several forest steppic species and several steppic flora elements (Continental, Pontic-Mediterranean, Pontic, Pontic-Pannonic and Turanian).
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Short communications
300-310Views:5421. New occurrence of Apium repens (Jacq.) Lagasca in Szigetköz region (NW Hungary)
2. Casual occurrences of Limonium gmelinii (Willd.) Kuntze subsp. hungaricum (Klokov) Soó in roadside verges
3.On the first sub-spontaneous occurrence of Asparagus verticillatus L. in Hungary
4. New occurrence data of Digitalis lanata Ehrh. in Kemence (Börzsöny Mts., N Hungary)
5. First report on the occurrence of Prospero paratheticum Speta from Danube–Tisza Interfluve (C Hungary)
6. Some interesting floristic data from Szigetköz (NW Hungary) after the great flooding of Danube in 2013
7. Newly discovered locality of the pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria judaica L.) in the city of Debrecen (E Hungary)
8. Kindbergia praelonga (Hedw.) Ochyra in the urban bryoflora of the town of Sopron (W Hungary)
9. Additional data to the distribution of Plantago coronopus L. in Hungary
10. On the formerly occurrence of Spiraea crenata L. in Kunpeszér (C Hungary)
11. History of discovery of Spiraea crenata L. on Mt Sas (Buda Mts., Hungary)
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Literature reviews
112–113Views:127DEÁK B. (2018): Természet és történelem. A kurgánok szerepe a sztyeppi vegetáció megőrzésében. – Ökológiai Mezőgazdasági Kutatóintézet Közhasznú Nonprofit Kft., Debrecen, 152 pp.
MOLNÁR V. A. (szerk., 2018): Élet a halál után. A temetők élővilága. – Debreceni Egyetem, Természettudományi és Technológiai Kar, Növénytani Tanszék, Debrecen, 216 pp.
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Contributions to the flora of kurgans in the Middle Tisza region
94–105Views:513Kurgans are ancient burial mounds built by nomadic steppic cultures. Embedded in the heavily transformed landscapes of the Carpathian Basin they often serve as last refuges for rare and endangered plant species. In our paper we publish floristic data collected on 82 kurgans located in the area of the Hortobágy National Park Directorate. Our dataset covers 64 CEU quarter quadrates, and the territory of 45 settlements. We provide data on 39 taxa that are either protected (e.g. Anchusa barrelieri, Centaurea solstitialis, Ranunculus illyricus and Phlomis tuberosa) or regionally rare (e.g. Aegilops cylindrica, Astragalus austriacus, Glaucium corniculatum and Trifolium diffusum). Our records demonstrate that kurgans have a vital role in maintaining the populations of rare and endangered grassland species even in transformed landscapes.