Acta Microbiologica et Immunologica Hungarica, 49 (2–3), pp. 193–205 (2002) 1217-8950/2002/$ 5.00  2002 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest LIGNICOLOUS MACROFUNGI OF THE KÉKES NORTH FOREST RESERVE IN THE MÁTRA MOUNTAINS, HUNGARY IRÉN SILLER 1 , G. TURCSÁNYI 2 ,ZSÓFIA MAGLÓCZKY 3 AND P. CZÁJLIK 3 1 Department of Botany, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the Szent István University, P.O. Box 2. H-1400 Budapest, Hungary, 2 Department of Nature Conservation of the Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management of the Szent István University, Páter K. u 1, H-2103 Gödöllő, Hungary, 3 “Vásárhelyi István” Nature Conservation Group, Kazinczy u 18, H-1191 Budapest, Hungary (Received: 27 December 2001; accepted: 10 January 2002) A three-year mycological investigation of the Kékes North forest reserve in the Mátra mountains, Hungary proved the richness of the area in lignicolous macrofungi. Diversity of macrofungi was in close correlation with the developmental phases of the forest as well as with the amount of dead wood of different quality (diameter, stage of decomposition, etc.). Keywords: diversity, macrofungi, forest reserve, beech forest, coarse woody debris (CWD), Hungary Introduction On the initiative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Nature Conservation a country-wide project for the research of forest reserves was begun in 1991. Within the frames of this project the marking out of forest reserves, and, in parallel with this, the research in several selected forest reserve areas was started. Until now 49 forest reserves obtained official protection, and the declaration of the protection is underway in the case of 14 further forests. A European wide concentration of forces and the development of an international network in the field of the research of forest reserves was accomplished by the COST E4 program. Hungary