Remarkable results of recent field explorations in the Kőszeg Mts

Abstract

The Kőszeg Mts are among the best studied areas of Hungary with respect to bryophytes. Nearly 400 species were reported from the Hungarian part of the mountains, which is partly due to favourable conditions of climate, bedrock, soil, and biotope diversity. However, a large part of the data was collected at the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th centuries, whereas there was no extensive bryofloristic research in the past 40 years. The authors began their field work in the Hungarian part of the mountains in 2015, and since then recorded nearly 40 species new to the area. In the course of our explorations, we succeeded in finding three species new to Hungary: Heterocladium heteropterum (Brid.) Schimp. and Rhabdoweisia crispata (Dicks.) Lindb. were collected from shaded rock in the valley of ’Harmas-patak’, whereas Plagiothecium latebricola Schimp. was detected on the partly rotting bases of alder trees (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.). Further remarkable records concern species which were rated data-deficient, without recent occurrences, in the red-list of 2010: Heterocladium dimorphum (Brid.) Schimp., Bryum mildeanum Jur., Leiocolea badensis (Gottsche) Jorg., Pellia epiphylla (L.) Corda, and Pohlia annotina (Hedw.) Lindb. We also succeeded in finding new occurrences of the critically endangered Warnstorfia exannulata (Schimp.) Loeske, and of 9 more endangered and vulnerable species: Buxbaumia viridis (Moug. ex Lam. & DC.) Brid. ex Moug. & Nestl., Diplophyllum obtusifolium (Hook.) Dumort., Isothecium myosuroides Brid., Leptodon smithii (Hedw.) F. Weber & D. Mohr, Dicranum spurium Hedw., Brachythecium reflexum (Starke) Schimp., Leiocolea collaris (Nees) Schljakov, Taxiphyllum densifolium (Broth.) Reimers, Ulota bruchii Hornsch. ex Brid