Lower and middle Pleistocene flora in the Carpathian basin

Abstract

Seventeen borings for scientific purposes in the Great Hungarian Plain give us the possibility to study the development of the Pleistocene vegetation in the very middle of the European continent. Some of the borings which penetrated the complete Pleistocence sequence were very rich in fossils, especially in pollen grains. According to the pollen, the Pleistocene in the Hungarian Basin can be divided in 25 climatic cycles. The first seven cycles being on the whole warm-temperate, were ordered in the Lower Pleistocene; the next nine cycles form parts of the Middle Pleistocene and the eight following cool cycles belong to the Upper Pleistocene. The compositions of the forests and the non-arboreous vegetation in the Middle and Lower Pleistocene are exposed in details in the present paper.