B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 29. 1998 (Budapest, 1999)

Papp, Beáta, Lőkös, László, Rajczy, Miklós, Chatzinikolaki, E.; Damanakis, M.: Bryophytes and lichens of some phrygana and maquis stands of Crete (Greece)

Studia bot. hung. 29, pp. 69-78, 1998 (1999) BRYOPHYTES AND LICHENS OF SOME PHRYGANA AND MAQUIS STANDS OF CRETE (GREECE) B. PAPP

1

, L. LŐKÖS

1

, M. RAJCZY

1

, E. CHATZINIKOLAKI

2 and M. DAMANAKIS

2 ^Dept. Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1476 Budapest, Pf. 222, Hungary Natural History Museum, University of Crete, Iraklion, Greece Terricolous and saxicolous bryophytes and lichens of six areas of maquis and phrygana stands were studied in the regions of Chania, Rethimno, Iraklion and Lasithi (Crete) during a field trip in April, 1997. Floristical evaluation and comparison of the different maquis and phrygana stands were carried out using the European distribution of the bryophyte species and bryophyte life strategy categories. In the stands investigated 19 liverworts, 47 mosses and 31 lichen species were collected. Three bryophyte and 4 lichen species are new to Crete. A vulnerable liverwort species were found in Rethymno region in the maquis stands of Mt Psiloritis. Acrocarpous mosses and xerotolcrant thalloid liverworts have great importance in the species composition of the stands of Mediterranean vegetation type and they are represented by many species in the stands investigated. Key words: bryophytes, Crete, lichens, maquis, phrygana INTRODUCTION It is still very promising to study the cryptogams in Greece even today. From several areas (e.g. Peloponnisos), being very poorly explored, still a great deal of new floristical and taxonomic results might be expected. The most complete checklists on the bryophytes of Greece, summarising all the earlier records, were published by PRESTON (1981, 1984). Recently DULL (1995) gave also a very good compilation, including a lot of new records. A detailed introduction to the literature on Greek lichens was published by CHRISTENSEN (1989). Most of these records originated usually from foreign specialists. Recently in Greece, at least at some institutes, also Greek researchers started to study the cryptogamic flora of Greece. It is very important to know the flora satisfactorily, because more and more areas are influenced, even destroyed by human impact. Several habitats have been disappearing without being known their flora and fauna in detail. It is especially true in case of the East Mediterranean region, where the nature has been used and transformed already for thousands of years. Our knowledge on the bryophytes and lichens of Crete are more complete in contrast with those of Greece. Some papers on the Cretan bryophytes and lichens were published already at the beginning of this century, e.g. ZAHLBRUCKNER