Acta Botanica Hungarica 50(1–2), pp. 1–18, 2008 DOI: 10.1556/ABot.50.2008.1–2.1 THE CYSTOPTERIDETUM FRAGILIS IN HUNGARY N. BAUER 1 , J. CSIKY 2 and A. VOJTKÓ 3 1 Department of Botany, Hungarian Natural History Museum H-1476 Budapest, Pf. 222, Hungary; E-mail: bauer@bot.nhmus.hu 2 Institute of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Pécs H-7624 Pécs, Ifjúság útja 6, Hungary; E-mail: moon@ttk.pte.hu 3 Department of Botany, Eszterházy Károly College H-3301 Eger, Pf. 43, Hungary; E-mail: vojtko@ektf.hu (Received 15 January, 2007; Accepted 30 July, 2007) The Cystopteridetum association has been mentioned in the Hungarian coenological litera- ture, but has not been confirmed by relevés until present. The authors give relevés from the Bakony Mts, the Mecsek Mts and from two sampling sites of the Northern Mountain Range. The stands of the Cystopteridetum association scattered in the middle-montane areas of Hungary are compared with another association of shaded forest rocky vegetation more widespread in submontane regions. Key words: Cystopteridetum fragilis, Hungary, plant community, shady rocks INTRODUCTION The European literature about the research of the umbrageous rocky veg- etation of forests is rather rich despite the fact that the spread of its stands is relatively insignificant (Firbas 1924, Jurko 1963, Jurko and Peciar 1963, Moor 1945, Oberdorfer 1938, 1949, Richard 1972, Valachovič 1996, Duchoslav 2002). However, we had little information about the stands in Hungary (Simon 1971, 1977, Soó 1931, Zólyomi 1966). It is particularly true for the Cystopteridetum fragilis Oberd. 1938 association. Notion of the association was published only in the last couple of years in the Hungarian coenological literature (Borhidi 1996). The point of our paper was to examine the variety of montane stands in Hungary, and their characteristic composition. The umbrageous rocky vegeta- tion of forest associations also were documented in connection with the pro- 0236–6495/$ 20.00 © 2008 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest