L. Hably szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 19. 1986 (Budapest, 1986)
Rajczy, Miklós, Buczkó, Krisztina; P. Komáromy, Zsuzsa: Contributions to the flora of the Hungarian caves I. Flora of the entrances of the caves Lök-völgyi-barlang and Szeleta-barlang
STUDIA BOTANICA HUNGARICA (Antea: Fragmenta Botanica) XIX. 1986 p. 79.88 Contributions to the flora of the Hungarian caves I. Flora of the entrances of the caves Lők-völgyi-barlang and Szeleta-barlang By M. RAJCZY, K. BUCZKO and Ze. P.-KOMÁROMY (Received August 1, 1986) Abstract: In the first part of their planned series the authors describe the flora of the entrance of two, prehistorically well-known caves in the Biikk Mts., Including the herbarium and other data, the flora of the cave Ló'k-völgyi-barlang consists of 11 alga and 7 bryophyte taxa, that of cave Szeleta-barlang consists of 38 alga, 12 moss, 1 fern and 1 dicotyledonous species and infraspeeific taxa. Plants living in the caves have attracted the attention of botanists for centuries. The mushrooms were the first plants to be studied in this special habitat. As early as in 17fi0, the first study on the flora (SCOPOL! 1760) containing data on cave plants, i.e. two mushroom species from the mercury mines near Idria in Carniolia (nowadays Idrija, Yugoslavia) was published. However MORTON & GAMS (1925) mentioned some earlier sporadic data as well, from the very beginning of the 18th century, which we could not trace. Later on, several publications appeared on the subject covering not only the mushrooms, but other phyla of the plants. Regarding the history of cave plant research we refer to MORTON & GAMS (1925) and DOBAT (1966) and their citations. A review of the Hungarian research is available as well (HAJDII 1977). Many data on cave bryophytes were published by BOROS and VAJDA, as well as GYORFFY. Regarding the Hungarian cave algae mainly the mysterious dark flora (CLAUS 1955. PALIK 1964, SPBA 1957, etc.) and the flora of the lamp-lit areas in illuminated caves (HAJDÚ & ORBÁN 1982, P.-KOMÁROMY & al. 1985) were studied. The examination of the cave part readiest in plants i.e. the entrances, stayed behind them. There are only two publications available (KOL 1964, P.KOMAROMY 1977) and our knowledge on the algal flora of cave entrances is rather poor even on a world-wide scale. In our new series we intend to publish the results of our examinations in the Hungarian caves. We restrict the term "flora" here to the green plants (incl. blue-green algae, but excl. fungi). Description of the caves. - Both caves are situated in the Biikk Mts, NE Hungary (Fig. 1), on the territory of the Biikk National Park. In the first half of the 20th century excavations were carried out in the caves. The cave Lők-völgyi-barlang opens to S in the western slope of the valley Lok-völgy , N from Felsőtárkány (elevation 445 m s.m.). The entrance is 2.2 m high and 3.5 m wide, the cave itself is 64 m long. During the excavations soil in the vicinity of the entrance was deepened to the rock and a more then one m deep ditch was dug in the centre of the passages (KADIC & MOTTL 1938), The cave is rather dry, the eastern niche at the entrance is bright, the inner parts are dim (Fig. 2). Registration number in the Hungarian Cave Survey: 5343/63. - The cave "Szeleta-barlang" is situated in the southern slope of the Mt. Szeleta-tető at the elevation of 335 m s.m. It was excavated to the rock, the ground was deepened more then 4 m at some places. The cave opens to S. Formerly the entrance was sheltered by bushes and
