L. Hably szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 21. 1989 (Budapest, 1989)

Buczkó, Krisztina; Rajczy, Miklós: Contribution to the flora of the Hungarian caves II. Flora of three caves near Beremend, Hungary

S T U D I A XXI. BOTANICA HUNGARICA (Antea: Fragmenta Botanica) 1989 p. 13-26 Contributions to the flora of the Hungarian caves II. Flora of three caves near Beremend, Hungary by K. BUCZKÓ and M. RAJCZY (Received October 10,1989) Abstract: Green flora of three small caves near Beremend in S Hungary were studied. Besides the floristic data the climatic and light conditions are reported as well. 49 algal and 17 bryophyte taxa were identified from the three caves, namely: Beremendi-ordöglyuk, Nagy Vizes-barlang and Kis Vizes-barlang. Aspleniwn adiantwn-nigrwn L. (Pteridophyta) was found in one of them though this species was known as a calciphobous one. INTRODUCTION The second part of our series intended to present the flora of Hungarian caves (the flora of lamp-lit areas of show caves as well as the flora of entrances) deals with the cryptogamic plants of the entrances of three small caves near Beremend. The first part of our work (RAJCZY et al. 1987) gave a short literatúrai summary of the floristic results of the Hungarian cave research. During the past three years we presented some floristic data and the changes of the vegetation of a show-cave in Budapest (RAJCZY et BUCZKÓ 1989). Description of the caves: All the three caves studied are situated in a limestone quarry near Beremend, Southern Hungary (Fig. 1). They were discovered 30-50 years ago in course of exploitation of the quarry. They had been formed in triassic limestone due to hydrothermal activity. All of them had a lake (or lakes) at their bottom representing the karstic water level. The biggest cave, Beremendi-ordöglyuk nowadays lacks them because it had been used as a depot for waste for a long while. By the time of our study they had a completely developed, climax vegetation. Unfortunately, these three caves have been dynamited by the continuation of the mining by now. This study was carried out to document the botanical wealth of these caves before their destruction.