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

Mészáros, Sándor: Comparison and relations of the Hungarian and the Mongolian flora

The other extremes are represented by genera occurring in both countries which have no species in common. Among the genera containing more than 10 species there were 23% of such cases. Most peculiar case among them is that of the genera Aconitum, Euphorbia*, Gentiana, Saxifraga, represented in relatively large species number in both countries. One of the reason of the lack of common species is the almost complete absence of Alpine species on the recent territory of Hungary (e.g., in case of Saxifraga). The other reason is that during the migration of species, new species were born under the effects of geological and climatical factors (e.g., in case of Aconitum, where aconites surviving the Ice Age on the European mountainous regions were split to several sections, species, subspecies and variants (VAJDA 1956) or, in case of Gentiana, where there was a W-E differentiation occurring within Eurasia. For example, the Eastern species pair of Gentiana cruciata in Mongolia is Gentiana macrophytta Pall, within the Cruciata section (MEUSEL et al. 1978). It is interesting to note the distribution of the 388 common species according to floristical elements as well. Cosmopolitan 58 species 14.95% Circumpolar 97 species 25.00% Eurasian 143 species 36.86% Continental 57 species 14.69% Others 33 species 8.50% (mainly Mediterranean) 388 species 100.00% Accordingly, 77% of the species common in both countries can be found there because they are widely distributed all over the world, the Northern Hemisphere or Eurasia in general. Among the species of Lathyrus, for example, there are three species in common (L. palustris, L. pisiformis, L. pratensis) which are of Holarctic or Eurasian distribution. All of them belong to the section Orobastrum which is an ancient, primeval ("ursprünglich") taxon according to MEUSEL et al. (1965). In the following let us turn to the 57 Continental elements of the flora, about which we can suppose an Eastern origin in Hungary, possibly from those parts of Asia where Mongolia is situated. The bulk of the 57 species are true Continental (Eastern) floristical elements, that is, not Pontian - coming from, and possibly spread towards Mongolia from the Russian steppes hying nearer to Hungary. Based on the monography "A magyar növényvilág kézikönyve", only 6 of these species are of Pontian or Pontian-Mediterranean distribution, but the assignment of these taxa can be questioned. For example, Limonium gmelini is assigned to the Pontian province, but it is listed by MÁTHÉ (1940,1941) among the Continental elements. Examining the community relations of these Continental floristical elements in common we find that in Hungary they can be associated basically with four types of associations. The first group enriched the species of the dry oak forests (Quercetalia pubescentis) and the karstic groves (Orno-Cotinetalia). In the first place, we have to mention here the species of the forestal steppes like Anemone sylvestris, Bromus inermis, Crépis praemorsa, Dracocephalum ruyschiana, Lathyrus pisiformis, Phlomis tuberosa, Senecio integrifolius, because the zone of the forestal steppe is equally important in Mongolia as well. While in Mongolia, however, the cold-continental forestal steppe is occurring exclusively, most of them are temperatecontinental (submediterranean) woodlands in Hungary. Dracocephalum ruyschiana is known * disregarding E. humifusa Willd., which is adventive in Hungary.