Occurrence of Rare Tree and Shrub Species in Hungary

Abstract

The Department of Botany has been focusing on investigating rare taxa of theHungarian dendroflora since 1989. The research dealt with nearly 50 species regarding conditions of occurrence, habitat preference, reproduction and possible conservational management up to 2003. In the investigation of species, chorology was of primary importance. Since 1993 occurrence data have been systematically collected. As a first result, CEU grid-maps of 142 species, including all the rare dendrotaxa in Hungary, were published (Bartha – Mátyás 1995) using grid squares of 10' long. × 6' lat. equalling approx. 12 × 11 km. With organizational and methodological experience, focuses have moved to processing, correction and mapping of reference, herbaria and new field records. A detailed evaluation of the distribution of 34 rare species in Hungary was made and published (Bartha et al 1999). The Department of Botany at the University of West Hungary has been project coordinator of ‘Floristic Mapping of Hungary’ since 2001. The present study describes actual distribution maps of 20 rare treeand shrub species with short analyses of their conditions in Hungary.