THE BRYOPHYTE FLORA OF UZHHOROD TOWN

Abstract

Uzhhorod is the administrative center of the Transcarpathian region. The town is located onslopes of the Volcanic range and on terraces of the Uzh river. Its area occupies about of 40 square kilometres where over 120 thousand population lives. At the beginning of the XX century, bryophytes of the Transcarpathia studied Hungarian, Czech and Slovak botanists. After the Second World War, these studies continued Ukrainian researchers. In general, 17 species of bryophytes were known till our research. In 2022–2023 years, a modern bryofloristic study of Uzhhorod was carried out. Oak forests of the historical areas Chervenytsia and Shakhta were examined, as well as parks Pidzamkovyi, Bozdoskyi, Rotary, public gardens Masaryk, Petefy and some street plantations. As a resultof the generalization of own and literary data in the town of Uzhhorod 90 species of bryophytes have been established, of which 11 species liverworts and 79 ones of mosses. Leading places in the spectrum of moss families occupy Orthotrichaceae (10 species), Brachytheciaceae (9) and Pottiaceae (6); the rest 26 families include 1–5 species each. Liverworts represent by 9 families, out of them only Metzgeriaceae and Ricciaceae include 2 species each.The richness of bryophyte species is observed mainly on trunks of trees, after that on natural and artificial rocky substrates. Like in Berehove town, expansive in Western Europe species Dicranoweisia cirrata (Hedw.) Lindb. occurs here. In the massif Chervenytsia, a number of mosses are growing, which are not detected within the built-up part of Uzhhorod. In this town, apart from widespread mosses, some rare taxa, namely Dicranum viride (Sull. & Lesq.) Lindb., included in Appendix I of the Berne Convention and the Red list of bryophytes of Ukraine, as wellas new species for the Ukrainian Carpathians Bryum ruderale Crundw. & Nyholm. and Schistidium crassipilum H.H. Blom. are known.