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The Sea milkwort (Glaux maritima) in the Carpathian Basin
10-20Views:315Sea milkwort (Glaux maritima L.) is a broadly distributed species in the northern hemisphere, inhabiting primarily maritime habitats from the arctic to the temperate zones. It is also found inland in semi-arid and arid regions with saline soils. Its status in the Carpathian Basin has become very uncertain owing to the lack of known extant populations. To evaluate its current status, I review all known occurrences within the Carpathian Basin where this species has been recorded or collected, and report five new localities of the species in Hungary, all in the western part of the Great Hungarian Plain. I also analyze habitat relationships of the species using traditional phytosociological relevés. Review of species distribution data in the Carpathian Basin revealed that sea milkwort has undergone severe reduction in population number and disappeared from many localities. Currently, only a few populations can be found in this region: the Northern Carpathians in Slovakia and the western part of the Great Plain in Hungary. In Transylvania (Romania), only a single population has been reported recently suggesting the critical status of the species there. Features of the habitats confirm the halophytic nature of the species and its fidelity to wet saline meadows. Its common accompanying species are mostly broadly distributed, salt-tolerant plants. Heterogeneity of the samples in species composition suggests that sea milkwort is not a habitat-specialist species. Several of its common associates in Hungary are also found in sea milkwort habitats in Mongolia, Asia and Utah, North America. Based on the available evidence, sea milkwort shall be considered a severely threatened plant in the Carpathian Basin. Characteristics of the vegetation in its habitats do not explain its occurrence in mountainous environments.
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Data on the pioneer vegetation of the Lake Velence
203–208Views:170Lake Velence is one of Hungary's largest saline lakes. Part of its natural dynamics is that certain parts of the lake bed regularly dry out, providing pioneer surfaces suitable for the emergence of plants of the mudflats and drying (saline) ponds. During the particularly dry year of 2022, the water level was permanently and significantly low, allowing to study the vegetation of the dry lake bed. In the first half of the last century, the natural vegetation of the lakeshore (including salt steppes) was studied, but there are very few records of the pioneer species of the lake bed. The salt steppes around the lake have now largely declined, but due to low water levels, some of their characteristic species are still present in the lake bed (though, usually in low number of individuals). Examples include Crypsis aculeata, Cyperus pannonicus, Suaeda pannonica, the once abundant Suaeda prostrata, and the previously rare Crypsis schoenoides and Spergularia salina. Spergularia maritima was once widespread but currently not found in the lake bed. Although, Schoenoplectus litoralis is not a member of the ephemeral vegetation, but is a characteristic plant of the littoral zone of Lake Velence. This species probably appeared therein the middle of the last century and is currently spreading.
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Recent Hungarian distribution of Potamogeton coloratus
77–83Views:169The distribution of fen pondweed (Potamogeton coloratus) restricted to Europe where it is one of the rarest and most threatened pondweed species. In Hungary, former data of fen pondweed originated mostly from thermal and karstic springs. Due to intensive bauxite mining activity in the edge of the Transdanubian Mountain Range (NW Hungary) these springs dried up by the end of the 20th century, and it caused the temporal extinction of the species. After the ceasing of mining activity many of the former karstic springs have regenerated and several fen pondweed populations have re-established. In this paper we summarized 18 population data of fen pondweed collected between 1999 and 2016. Many of them were formerly registered in the 19th century too. Most of the new and re-discovered populations were found in karstic springs or in artificial and natural lakes in the vicinity of these springs.
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Lajos Felföldy: a prominent Hungarian botanist and hydrobiologist
3–25Views:160Lajos 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.
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The herbarium of Debrecen University (DE) I. The “Rezső Soó Herbarium”
142-155Views:166The paper introduces the herbarium of Debrecen University (DE). All specimens of the herbarium were documented by digital photographs, and all data from the labels were entered into an Excel spreadsheet. The largest collection of Herbarium DE, the “Soó Rezső Herbarium” (abbreviation: SRH) consists of ca. 38.000 specimens from almost all European countries, but mainly from Hungary and the neighbouring countries. Most of the specimens originate from Hajdú-Bihar, Pest, Győr-Moson-Sopron, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Veszprém and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties. The SRH stores a considerable amount of original/authentic specimens collected by Hungarian botanists, primarily by Rezső Soó and his followers, as well as Sándor Polgár. The most rapid growth of the SRH took place in the first half of the last century (1930–1950). By contrast, the collection was practically not developed between 1955 and 2000. After the millennium it started to grow again. Data on the most substantial part of the SRH covering native plants collected in the present-day Hungary are summarized in Electronic Appendix 1. (incl. taxon name, settlement, collecting date, collector, file name of documentary photograph).
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The Herbarium of Debrecen University (DE) II.: The „Zoltán Siroki Herbarium”
15-22Views:408The paper introduces the “Zoltán Siroki Herbarium” (on the basis of the MS Excel spreadsheet database of the collection) which is a separate section within the Herbarium of Debrecen University (DE). The Zoltán Siroki Herbarium consists of ca. 20 000 specimens from almost all European countries, but mainly from the historical territory of Hungary. Although ca. 400 botanists contributed to this collection, most of the specimens were collected by Zoltán Siroki in Hajdú-Bihar, Pest and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties. The most rapid growth of the Herbarium took place in the middle of the last century (from the 1940s to 1960s), but Siroki remained an active collector until the 1980s. Some specimens from the Herbarium of former Royal Seed Testing Station (Budapest) was also incorporated in this collection; they represent gatherings from the last decades of the 19th century and first decades of the 20th century. Data on the most significant part of the collection, representing native plants collected in the present-day Hungary, are summarized in Electronic Appendix 1. (incl. taxon name, settlement, collecting year, collector, file name of documentary photograph).
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Dr. Antal Waisbecker was born 180 years ago
179–192Views:147Dr. Antal Waisbecker (1835–1916) was a Hungarian physician and the most prominent botanist of Vas county (West Hungary) at the turn of the 19–20th century. He contributed with important floristic data for the botanical monography of Vas county, authored by Vince Borbás. He processed the pteridophytes of Vas county and cormophytes in the surroundings of Kőszeg. Antal Waisbecker was an expert in the knowledge of sedges too. He discovered and described the Carex fritschii. Remarkable amount of herbarium specimens collected by Waisbecker are deposited at the Savaria Museum (Szombathely, SAMU) and Hungarian Natural History Museum (Budapest, BP).
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Sándor Polgár and the research of the adventive flora of Hungary
188–197Views:105In 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.
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Dr. Sándor Polgár, my grandfather
185–187.Views:82My grandfather, dr. Sándor Polgár was the second son of a Jewish family the members of which were at home in northwestern Hungary since generations as were the family of his wife Margit Csillag. He attended Benedictine secondary school in Győr and completed his studies at the Faculty of Sciences in Budapest where he got a teaching diploma for sciences at secondary school level. After that he obtained his PhD degree in aquatic plants. Beside science and pedagogy he was also interested in philosophy and music and he spoke fluent German and French. A number of his students became later successful scientists in Hungary and abroad. He was murdered together with my grandmother and a large number of his family members in Auschwitz.