Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 76. (Budapest 1984)

Kordos-Szakály, M.: New data to the Miocene flora of Nógrádszakál (Hungary)

Flora of the Nógrádszakái localities The so-far known literature and collection data on the area of Nógrádszakái are summarized in Table 1, which includes both exact, quantitative data and presence-absence (H ) because in the 1959 monograph no quantitative data were published and its material cannot be identified with the specimens preserved in collections. The compilation of this table necessitated the revision of both the collection in the Botanical Department identified earlier by Kovács and the whole Nógrádszakái material of the Kubinyi Ferenc Museum in Szécsény (1141 impressions). Besides I have analysed the unidentified material in the Paleobotanical Collection of the Botanical Department (446 impressions). Five paleobotanical sites are known from the area of Nógrádszakái (the main branch of the Paris stream, the side-branch of the Paris stream, Bertece valley, Rárósmulyad, Pityi quarry). Below I will omit the material of Rárósmulyad and the material of the Pityi quarry because the exact location and stratigraphic position of the former one are unknown and from the latter locality only a few remains were collected. The material of the main branch of the Paris stream is very poor and from stratigraphical viewpoint it is identical with the flora of the side-branch. Therefore I have pooled the two localities and in the following they will be referred to as Paris stream. The plant impressions of the collection of the Szécsény Museum and of the Hungarian Natural History Museum are only known to have originated "from the valley of the Paris stream". During the field surveys I also attempted to find in the Bertece valley several paleobotanical localities of probably the same stratigraphie position while their separation in the material of collections is impossible. Among the 1545 impressions which can be estimated quantitatively, 1198 pieces are known from the valley of the Paris stream and 347 pieces from the valley of the Bertece. The published and quantitatively useful flora contains 88 species, 43 genera and 33 families. Among them 76 species of 42 genera are known to have been found in the valley of the Paris stream and 30 species of the 21 genera are known from the Bertece valley. The two floras have 16 species of 11 genera in common (including taxa which can be identified only to the species) which means 18 per cent. Table 2 contains the number of individual of the common species calculated on the basis of impressions where 1113 common plant remains formed 73% of the total number. In spite of their great resemblance the floras of Paris stream and Bertece valley are significantly different as regards frequency of the number of individuals of their various genera. In the valley of Paris stream Populus'Acer"-Ulmus while in the Bertece valley ParrotiaEquisetum-Populus-"Acer" are dominant (Table 3). At the same time the differences suggest that the genera Populus and "Acer" are characteristic almost exclusively for the valley of the Paris stream while Parrotia is characteristic definitely only for the Bertece valley. In the case of other taxa, which cannot be regarded as dominant, we can observe further significant differences. In the Bertece valley Ulmus longifolia, Salix species (S. angusta, S. fragilis, S. sp.) and Populus balsamoides var. obesa are completely absent. Dicotyledonous species are frequent in both floras (Paris 96%, Bertece 85%), horsetails (Paris 1-2%, Bertece 4-5%) are few; gymnosperms sporadically occur only in the Paris valley (0.25%). Arcto-Tertiary elements (Populus, Salix, Quercus, Ulmus, Juglans, Vitis, Alnus, Betula, Platanus stc.) are dominant, there are only a few genera like Daphnogene and Sapindus which have tropical relationship. Paleotropical elements are represented only by the remnant family Lauraceae found in the Bertece valley. The following remarks on may be added the most frequent and characteristic taxa which came to light from the localities of the Paris and Bertece valleys. Equisetum parlatorii (HEER) SCHIMPER. KOVÁCS (1959) have already draw attention to the presence of the rhizomes of this horsetail, a species which requires a marshy biotope with high ground-