B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 34. 2003 (Budapest, 2003)

Szurdoki, Erzsébet: Peat mosses of North Hungary

Presumably this is only a temporary establishment, like the one in the Őrség region (ÓDOR et al. 2002). The populations of S. magellanicum mainly live in nutrient poor parts of bogs. In European mires it can be found on the lower part of hummocks, relatively far from the water table. In Hungarian mires, the hummock-hollow system is not really visible, but small hummocks have developed around trees and herbs and sometimes S. magellanicum lives on these hummocks. Both the number and size of the populations of S. magellanicum has decreased in the past decades in North Hungary. It was a rare species earlier also, but recently it became endangered. Section Acutifolia The species of this section have an interesting pattern of distribution in Hungary. Except for S.fimbriatum, they can be found on wet and acidic forest soil, wet road embankments and ditches but they rarely occur in mires. Members of this section are medium-sized, rarely robust, usually with well-developed capitulum and often with red or brown pigmentation (except for S. fimbriatum and S. girgensohnii). They have well-developed cortex, and their stem leaves are rarely smaller than 1.2 mm. The shape of the stem leaves is variable among species; they are of great help in field identification. The cross section of branch leaves is typical for the section: the hyaline cells are triangular or trapezoid and widely exposed on the adaxial (ventral) leaf surface (DANIELS and EDDY 1985). Eight species of this section are found in Hungary (S. fimbriatum, S. girghensohnii, S. capillifolium, S. rubellum, S. quinquefarium, S. russowii, S. warnstorfii, S. subnitens, ORBÁN and VAJDA 1983, ÓDOR et al. 1996, SZURDOKI 1996, LÁJER 1998«, b, SZURDOKI et al. 2000,2001, in press), in Europe 13 (DANIELS and EDDY 1985) and in North Hungary only three of them (Table 1). Sphagnum quinquefarium (Braithw.) Warnst. It is medium-sized, normally pale green coloured plant with red or pink flack; in Hungary it is rare. Characteristic features are the 3 spreading branches per fasciculum, strictly 5-ranked branch leaves and the porose stem cortex. This species is absent from mires, lives under shrubs and in woodlands (DANIELS and EDDY 1985). It is not frequent in Hungary occurring mainly in the western part of the country, on acidic forest soils. Studia bot. lumg. 34, 2003