Veres János: A bükkábrányi 8 millió éves mocsárerdő (Múzeumi Mozaik 7. Miskolc, 2007)

STUDY OF THE FOREST The paleobotanists of the Museum of Natural History answered a question of mine just by looking at the photographs taken onsite. I was told we found a bald cypress forest (taxonium by its scientific name). In the field all signs of the species were accounted for. This plant species is still around today in subtropical environments like Florida, Tanzania, Northern India or Australia. In Hungary there are a few subspecies still remaining in special botanical gardens. They like seasonal swamps but they also live at riverbanks and floodlands. Bald cypresses can grow to a height of 40—45 metres and their sizable (3 metre in diameter) trunks are supported by sprit like root shoulders. In water they grow breathing roots the function of which is still unkown. Marldng the metric characteristics of these trees like trunk diameter, height, distance from each other are quite important. The distance is significant because this shows the size of the canopy thus the amount of light in the forest. The above illustrates a dence, healthy population of 40-metre tall bald cypress forest, judging from the distances of the stumps the canopy was probably so dence that hardly any light could have found its way down to the forest floor. The core samples taken from the stumps show signs of natural decay which means a few dying trees in the group. Some fallen trees are evident on the forest floor which also indicates a healthy but mixed biotope of young and old cypresses. We are conducting a study of the annual rings of the stumps with the help of the dendrocronologists of the University

7 of Eötvös Lóránd. The rings show human fingerprint like dence lines. We judge these trees to be 3—400 years old. If we take the various ages of the population as a whole into account the scientists can hope for 1500 years worth of climatic data. The study of the roots resulted in interesting findings. The so-called breathing roots that grow straight