2 research outputs found
Bryophyte Collection of Eszterházy Károly University (EGR): the digital database of peat moss (Sphagnum) species
Bryophyte Collection of Eszterházy Károly University (EGR): the digital database of peat moss (Sphagnum) species
The Bryophyte Herbarium of the University of Eger (EGR) is considered to be one of the
most important collections of this kind in Central Europe. Bryophyte specimens held at
EGR count around 200.000 specimens, of which approximately 2700 are the Sphagnum
specimens. The first Sphagnum specimens arrived probably by exchange to M. Vrabélyi
from prominent botanists, as K. G. Limpricht, A. W. Evans, V. Schiffner and J. E.
Zetterstedt. Imortant are the duplicate specimens collected by Á. Boros and L. Vajda
(their first specimens are stored in BP). Members of the Department of Botany has also
increased this part of the collection during their field research, as by: T. Pócs, J. Suba, I.
Bakalár, S. Dulai and A. Vojtkó. Our main aim was to digitalize and publish first
information on the cryptogam herbarium in order to provide an easier access to the
data.
After photographing the pages of the collection, we read the information on the photos
and recorded them in an MS Excel spreadsheet. During the record process the following
information could be filled: species name (Latin), section where it belongs, place of
occurrence (administrative area, geographical area, coordinates), habitat, date of
collection (year/month/day), substrate, name of collector and of identifier.
We choose to present here our Sphagnum (peat mosses) collection as the digitization
process started in 2014, and based on stage from July 2017. There are 2700 Sphagnum
samples of our bryophyte collection representing around 1.35 % of the whole
bryophyte collection. Among others exsiccata specimens of Sphagnotheca Borealiamericana
(Ed. R. E. Andrus and D.H. Vitt). Isotype of Sphagnum amoenum Warnst.
(Bryotheca brasiliensis) and isotype of Sphagnum squarrosiforme Dixon and Sherrin
(Bryophytorum typorum exsiccata) are also preserved in our Sphagna collection. The
most active Hungarian collectors were: Á. Boros, L. Vajda, Á. Károlyi, T. Pócs and J. Suba.
In addition to this, many specimens collected by foreigners can also be found: R. E.
Andrus, A. M. Cleef, J. Duda, A. Stebel, etc. There are 554 specimens from today's
Hungary, most of the Hungarian specimens are from the active years of Á. Boros. The
oldest Sphagnum specimen was collected by J. E. Zetterstedt in June 23, 1860 from
Sweden. The collection has been growing slowly but steadily during the XIXth century.
We have specimens in the collections from more than forty countries. The peat moss
collection has a great floristical significance as preserves important probative
specimens of bogs from which the Sphagnum species have been extinct due to the
decline of the wet habitats in these days. Increasing collection activity was continuous
since 2010, with completion of new data enties. It is hoped that the unified inventory of
cryptogam collection will be easily searcheable facilitating loans and research