B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 33. 2002 (Budapest, 2002)

Erzberger, Peter: Funaria muhlenbergii and Funaria pulchella (Funariaceae, Bryophyta) in Hungary

meditt." in his hand or "±átmeneti alak a F. mediterranea Lindb.-hez 1929.1.1. Á. Boros". The distributional data presented in this study show that F. muhlenbergii and F. pulchella in Hungary predominantly occur within the same area. They show the characteristic area-type of the sub-Mediterranean element in Hungary (ZÓLYOMI 1942) centring in the Transdanubial uplands, with only few isolated occurrences in the eastern range near Eger and Miskolc, respectively. According to DULL (1985), both species show a sub-Mediterranean - suboceanic - montane pattern of distribution. In western and central Europe as well as in Hungary, they occur in lowlands and in the colline region. In Britain F. muhlenbergii reaches its highest altitude at 380 m a.s.l. (CRUNDWELL 1994) and in Germany at 370 m a.s.l. (DULL 1994), and F. pulchella is a lowland plant (CRUNDWELL 1994). However, in the Iberian peninsula, F. muhlenbergii occurs at 1,000-1,700 m a.s.l., whereas F. pulchella grows at 200-1,450 m a.s.l. (CASAS et al. 1996). F. muhlenbergii reaches southern Scandinavia (CRUNDWELL 1994), whereas F. pulchella has its most northern records in Scotland (CRUNDWELL 1994) and, on the Continent, in the Odera valley in Germany (ERZBERGER 2002, unpublished; the alleged occurrence in Brandenburg of F. muhlenbergii (BENKERT et al. 1995, LUDWIG et al. 1996) erroneously refers to a record of F. pulchella). In Hungary, F. muhlenbergii and F. pulchella are very similar in geographical distribution. They also occur in the same localities and share the same habitat. Therefore, their ecological demands appear to be very similar. This is best documented by the fact that they can form mixed stands. However, according to the results of the phenological analysis, they may differ in the time of sporophyte ripening. Although the difference in the mean estimated day of dehiscence is statistically significant, more work is needed to evaluate the biological significance of this result. The time course of sporophyte ripening obviously depends on a number of environmental factors, e.g. the overall meteorological and climatic situation as well as microclimatic and habitat features. The sample of gatherings analysed contains a very large degree of variation in this respect, because specimens were collected at different localities as well as in different years. In the statistical analysis, these differences are in part levelled off, but there remains some uncertainty. Close field observation of mixed stands could perhaps yield some relevant information on the subject, but difficulties are inherent in the varied microhabitats in which the species grow. Thus, when small turfs of plants of F. pulchella collected by the author on 21 April 2001 at Pes-kő (Vértestolna) were inspected for the fraction of deoperculate sporophytes, this proportion varied between 0.17 and 0.9 (mean ± s.d.: 0.53 ± 0.26). On the other hand, cultivation of the two species should not be too difficult, and experiments of that kind might shed light on the question whether