B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 36. 2005 (Budapest, 2005)

Szollát, György; Standovár, Tibor: Botanical values of the Öreg-hegy and Juhász-halom near Csomád

Table 2 (continued) Species name Öreg-hegy Juhász-halom Ulmus minor Mill. + Valerianella locusta (L.) Latterade + Verbose um lychnitis L. + Verbascum phoeniceum L. + + Veronica chamaedrys L. subsp. vindobonensis M. Fischer + Veronica prostrata L. + Veronica spicata L. + Vicia tetrasperma (L.) Schreb. Vinca herbacea W. et K. (ws) + + Viola hirîa L. (ws) + + Xerandiemum annuum L. + Most of these grasslands are secondary in nature, they are former pastures that were created by clear felling the original woody vegetation. Based on the information derived from the map of the Second Military Survey of Hungary (1842, Sectio no.: 49, Colonne XXXIII; The Cartographic Collection of the Maproom of the Hungarian Institute and Museum of Military History, Budapest) large parts of the southern slopes of the Öreg-hegy - including the patches of the described valuable grasslands - were covered by grape-yards ("Öreg Szöllö"). These grasslands were grazed until recently. Expansion of shrubs has been intensified in the past 10 years. Crataegus monogyna dominates with Ligustrum vulgare, Rosa canina, Berberis vulgaris as other important shrubs. Regarding their conservation value, most of the grassland patches are in the range of semi-natural to intermediately degraded, since, in spite of the presence of natural associate species, the share and number of weeds and disturbance tolérants is rather high. However, there is a high variation in the quality of different patches (from semi-natural to intermediately degrade, or even recently disturbed highly degraded). Both composition and structure of the vegetation indicate secondary origin and former disturbances, like intensive grazing. Besides high abundance of Botriochloa ischaemum, there are obvious signs of degradation in the structure of the grassland: general dominance of grasses; coarse-grained structure of the grassland, i.e., hardly any species can establish in the patches dominated by a single species. Such dominant grasses include Festuca rupicola, Stipa capillata, and - in certain patches - Chrysopogon gryllus. Similar patches can be formed after severe disturbance (e.g., rooting place of wild boar) by Anthoxanthum odoratum and Botriochloa ischaemum. Many other species can be locally abundant on disturbed sites: Bromus squarrosus, Lepidium campestre, Rumex acetosella, Trifolium arvense, Cynodon dactylon, Teucrium chamaedrys, Thymus pannonicus, Eryngium campestre, Hypericum perforatum, Cruciata laevipes, Salvia pratensis.