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• Asparagus verticillatus L. in Hungary

  38-43

  Tamás Wirth

  Kinga Gyergyák

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  Climbing asparagus (Asparagus verticillatus L.) a new adventive species to the Hungarian flora was recently discovered in the city of Pécs (South Hungary) in 2011–2012. Taxonomy, morphological description and current localities of the species are presented in this paper. A. verticillatus is a mediterranean-submediterranean species native in Balkan Peninsula, Eastern Europe, Western- and Middle Asia. The species is a popular ornamental plant in Hungary, but no data was available about its escape or naturalisation in the country so far. Herbarium specimens from Hungary were collected so far mostly from botanical and private gardens; only one specimen was collected in a dry grassland along a roadside in the city, respectively. The newly discovered small populations are located mostly in secondary dry grasslands, at the edges of vineyards and private gardens on the southern slopes of the Mecsek Mts and only one specimen was found far from the residential area in natural vegetation. Because climbing asparagus is a frequently planted ornamental plant in several locations of Pécs, further escape, naturalisation and persistence of the species is possible in the future.