Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 77. (Budapest 1985)

P. Komáromy, Zs., Padisák, J. ; Rajczy, M.: Flora in the lamp-lit areas of the cave "Anna-barlang" near Lillafüred (Hungary)

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Tomus77. Budapest, 1985 p. 103-112. Flora in the lamp-lit areas of the cave "Anna-barlang" near Lillafüred (Hungary) by Zs. P.-KOMÁROMY, J. PADISÁK & M. RAJCZY, Budapest Abstract

—The green plants proliferating in the lamp-lit areas of a Hungarian show-cave were investigated. This flora comprises altogether 42 alga taxa, 10 moss species and 1 fern species. The similarities among the floristic compositions of the lamp-lit areas were studied by means of WPGMA cluster analysis. With 6 figures. Introduction — Several papers can be found on the floras of lamp-lit areas of illuminated caves. The majority of these studies are floristic works, their aim being simply to give a list of plant species living in this special habitat. Most of them deal with only one group of plants, e.g. with mosses only. Even DOBAT (1966), who published a monograph on the floras including all the green plants of the caves in the Schwäbische Alb (Germany) and studied the ecology of the lamp-lit areas in detail, did not pay attention to the floristical composition of the individual lamp-lit areas in the cave. As far as we know there are only two papers on the distributional patterns of plant species in any illuminated cave. Unfortunately they deal only with diatoms and most probably the sampling procedure was not exhaustive at all (ST. CLAIR & RUSHFORTH 1976, ST. CLAIR & al. 1981). Our main purpose was to reveal the floristic composition of each individual lamp-lit area and to establish the similarity patterns between them. Description of the cave — The cave is situated at the foot of the Bükk Mts at Lillafüred (a small health-resort) which administratively belongs to Miskolc, a large city in NEHungary (Fig. 1). The cave consists of several natural cavities formed syngenetically in Pleistocene calc-tuff and there are artificial galleries interconnecting them. It is an important fact that the ecological diversity of the lamp-lit areas is extremely low in this cave. The climate is very constant, as it usually in caves, seeping and dropping waters are rare and the rock is almost homogenous. Dripstone decorations are rare, but there are several small spots of clay. More than 80% of the illuminated surfaces are air-dry calc-tuff formations. Air humidity, being 97-100%, is the only water-supply for the majority of the plants. The ventilation of the cave is poor. Further details on the geology, history and ecology of the cave is given in RAJCZY & al. (1985), LÉNÁRT (1982) and SZABÓ (1963). The lighting system of the cave was first installed in 1928. The green covers around the electric lights first developed before World War II, but their significance could not have been great as no publication was found mentioning this phenomenon (S. Borbély in lit. ad Á. Boros, 10.02. 1962. in Hungarian). The damages caused by the hostilities of the war were finally renovated in 1955. A few years after the installation there were extensive green coatings around the lamps again. In the beginning of the 1980s a rapid expansion took place and now there is no lamp in the cave without a more or less extensive thick green cover around it. Mosses were collected in the cave in 1962, 1964, 1969 and 1982 (BOROS 1964, VERSEGHY 1965, VAJDA 1966). Methods Green plants were collected from the cave in April, 1984. We took samples at every lamp from each green coating. Algological samples were taken under sterile conditions with a knife sterilized by heat before sampling. The scrapings were put into presterilized collecting tubes filled with inorganic fluid medium (Bold-medium). The samples were in general composite samples, i.e. the scrapings obtained from several spots of the illuminated surface were placed into the same tube. In case the illuminated surface was too large or its relief was too diverse we used two collecting tubes. The samples were transferred to the laboratory where they were cultivated at room temperature on nearly natural light. The content of the tubes was examined under microscope after one and half month, then again after further two months. The advantage of this method is that even