< 2016

Botanikai Közlemények 103(2): 179–193 (2016)
DOI: 10.17716/BotKozlem.2016.103.2.179

In memoriam András Horánszky, botanist, docent and Candidate of Biological Sciences (1928–2015)

T. SIMON¹ and P. CSONTOS2*

¹Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Teoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Loránd Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter stny. 1/C, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary

²Institute for Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 102, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary

* corresponding author: cspeter@mail.iif.hu

Accepted: 22 October 2016

Keywords: bibliography, commemoration, nature conservationist, phytosociologist,taxonomist.

Authors commemorate András Horánszky (1928–2015), the experienced botanist and university lecturer. His felds of interest included taxonomy, floristics, phytosociology and nature conservation. In his early work on the taxonomy of Festuca species, he applied morphological studies combined with statistical evaluations, a pioneering methodological approach at that time. As a florist and biogeographer, he frst recognized Visegradense, as an independent floristic province. Regarding phytosociology, his major work “Die Wälder des SzenrendreVisegrader Gebirges. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 288 pp.” provided a detailed description of the forest associations in the Visegrád Mts, according to the Central European school of phytosociology. In nature conservation, the species-rich, xerothermic grasslands on dolomite slopes of the Buda Hills were in the focus of his interest. To protect these grasslands and their relic species from afforestation by the alien Pinus nigra as well as from overgrazing by the alien mouflon, he took on hard disputes with representatives of foresters and hunters. He published about 150 papers in science and popular science, and translated several books on botany from German to Hungarian including “Urania Pflanzenreich: Höhere Pflanzen 1–2.” und “Urania Pflanzenreich: Niedere Pflanzen”. Two vascular plant species (Achillea horanszkyi Ujhelyi and Molinia horanszkyi Milkovits) and one microfungus species (Sphaeronaemella horanszkyi (Tóth) Tóth) are named afer him. (With 2 pictures and the list of András Horánszky’s publications.)