Magyari Márta (szerk.): A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 2011-2012 (Debrecen, 2012)
Természettudomány - Molnár Zsolt–Hoffmann Károly: A hortobágyi pásztorok növény- és növényzetismerete. I. Szikesek, rétek, mocsarak és löszgyepek növényei, valamint az őshonos fásszárúak és erdei lágyszárúak
28 molnár zsolt-hoffmann KAROLY Zsolt Molnár-Károly Hoffmann Plant and habitat knowledge of herdsmen in the Hortobágy steppe I.: species of salt steppes, meadows, marshes, loess grasslands, woodlands, and the native trees Only one ethnobotanical survey is known from the Hortobágy region (Tikos 1950,1951). In his excellent papers Tikos published 141 folk names (related to ca. 130 wild plant species). Between 2008-2011 during 76 field days (and from 78 herdsmen) we collected ca. 550 folk names, belonging to at least 162 folk taxa and used to name at least 243 plant species. In this paper we publish data for the species of salt steppes, meadows, marshes, loess grasslands, woodlands, and the native trees in the following structure: latin name, official Hungarian name, number of data collected, habitat and frequency of the species in the Hortobágy, folk names, habitat description by herdsmen, local use of the species, knowledge on morphology and phenology, and description of folk taxonomy. Data prove the astonishingly deep botanical knowledge of herdsmen. They know well the ecological requirements, phenology, grazing value and morphology etc. of wild plant species of the Hortobágy salt steppe. The goal of our research was not simply to collect and archive this knowledge. For the protection and management of our natural heritage (e.g. our ancient salt steppes) it is inevitable to have detailed information on the knowledge of herdsmen on nature and how they use this knowledge in their everyday work. Our data can also be used in environmental education.
