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

Buczkó, Krisztina; Rajczy, Miklós: Contribution to the flora of the Hungarian caves II. Flora of three caves near Beremend, Hungary

verticillatum was found in a great mass. The other mass species was Leptobryum pyriforme (6a, 14, 21a, 22 sampling points; though 6a is situated on the E wall, it belongs floristicaliy to this group). 3. The clay on the bottom of the cave: Pellia endiviifolia formed thick crust on the clay. Didymodon rigidulus var. glaucus and Pohlia metánodon accompanied it (12, 13, 21, 23, 25 sampling points). The fern flora was very poor. Only one species was found, but it was a mass forming taxon. Aspleniwn trichomanes covered the walls, especially those of the first entrance in every exposure. The prothalliums of Aspleniwn were found all over the cave, where there was not enough light for the life of the sporophyte. Gallium mollugo L. was the only flowering plant near the 5. sampling point in the first entrance of this cave. This point was on a sloping stone surface at 2.5 m depth, the seeds of the plants could fall on it. A few unidentifiable monocotyledonous seedling lived there as well. Nagy Vrzes-barlang There were two deep lakes on the bottom of this cave (Fig. 3) which had direct connection with the thermal karst water. The surface of the lake was large enough to the cubic capacity of the cave, so the karst water determined the climate of the cave. In winter the water (24.2-24.4 °C) heated the air quite near the entrance, and determined a definite current of air. In winter the cold air flowed into the cave along the Southern wall, and went away along the Northern wall (Fig. 4). Due to this current the Northern wall was dry, visibly intact. The result of the microscopic observation of this wall was very poor, only a few cells of Navicula contenta were found. Although the number of algal species of the cave was low (24), there were some very particular properties of the distribution of taxa (Table 3.). Scotiella levicostata, which had not been noticed in Hungarian cave entrances as yet, was one of the most common species, it lived at full length of the cave during the summer. Besides it the characteristic species were: Gloeocapsa punctata, Navicula contenta, Chlorhorrnidium flaccidum. In spite of the Cyanobacteria predominance in the Beremendi-ordöglyuk, predominance of Chlorophyta was found here. The distribution of some characteristic species is shown on Fig. 3. The seasonality in the floristic composition and the distribution of taxa was unexpected. We supposed that the conditions in the cave were constant independently of season. In contrast to it, seasonal changes were detected, moreover the summer distribution was more regular. The distribution of algae was sporadic on winter. The surfaces of the stones in the lake at the bottom of the cave were covered by fluffy brown carpet. This material mainly consisted of bacteria (filamentous and coccoid) and unicellular animals but no algae. The concentration of organic material must have been very high because of the many frogs which lived there. No flowering plant was detected in this cave. Three fern species: Aspleniwn trichomanes L., Phyllitis scolopendrium (L.) Newman and Dryopteris filix-mas (L.) Schott lived there. Asplenium formed mass vegetation here until the point 5 (Fig. 3) as in the Beremendi-ordöglyuk. The moss vegetation was more or less continuous on the walls of the upper part of the cave, but we could identify 7 species only (Table 4). There were only rock surfaces in this cave, so the mosses which prefer the soil or clay surfaces were lacking. Fissidens tœdfolius and Plagiomnium cuspidatum were found in this cave only.