Csévharaszt juniper steppe woodlands

The Csévharaszt Juniper Nature Conservation Area is located on one of the most varied natural landscapes of the Danube–Tisza region, in the hill forest steppe area spread across the Csévharaszt region. The protected area was designated in 1940 based on the decision No. 118. 136/1939 of the National Nature Conservation Council. Its registry number is 2/TT/40, and its extent is 105 ha.

History

Karoly Kaán, honoured as a father of domestic nature conservation, in his work that defined the main direction of nature protection for decades, *Nature Conservation and the Protection of Natural Monuments*, proposes the Pótharaszti desert for protection, i.e., “reservation”, which was among the first areas declared protected in 1940. The area is still protected today and is part of the European Union’s nature protection network, the Natura 2000 network. The nature‑conservation management tasks are carried out by the Directorate of the Danube‑Ipoly National Park; through several successful grant programmes they have successfully reduced invasive plant species threatening the area and have taken steps to preserve the persistent carnation.

Description

Our country lies at the meeting point of the open forest‑steppe zone and the Western European closed‑forest zone. The open, oak‑dominated oakwoods of the Great Plain, mosaicked with steppe patches, are, according to current knowledge, the remnants of vegetation closest to the natural state in our country. Forest‑steppe is among our most valuable and most endangered natural heritage.

It is rightly asked why, if the area’s name refers to juniper, the introductory remarks speak of forest‑steppe oakwoods. Answering this question is helped, on the one hand, by vegetation history, and on the other hand by linguistics and local history.

Csévharaszt became an independent settlement in 1951, at which time it received this name from the previously named Pótharaszt settlement. The settlement is mentioned as early as 1280 in a deed as “Poltharasztya”. Our word Haraszt, most likely of Slavic origin, means young forest or oak. It is known that the most valuable part of the area, the Bucka forest, was previously surrounded by large, closed oak stands (oak forests with lily-of-the-valley and hornbeam, dwarf pine patches); within these there was a more buckthorn-like and much drier habitat island, on which today we find oak‑summer‑birch. Unique, however, is that on the tops and sides of the hills 5–12 meter high moss‑covered and stalked oaks (or their hybrids) grow. Beneath them a closed humic steppe‑mosaic is found, partly with forest species such as lily‑of‑the‑valley or broad‑leaf salamander‑seal. According to some, the present state resulted from over‑grazing of an earlier more closed forest, while others argue that because of the site conditions a closed forest could never have developed in the area, and the closure of woody vegetation could have varied between 30 % and 70 %. This is linked to the botanical observation of András Kun that moss‑covered or dwarf‑oak saplings were found in significant quantities in every examined area. Based on all this we can rightly assume that near Csévharaszt there have always been forest‑steppe mosaics, with more or less oak stands.

The Csévharaszt juniper steppe landscape is also of outstanding significance. It consists mainly of open (and closed) sand steppe communities and xerothermic oak woods, a mosaic of summer junipers, composed largely of drought‑tolerant, perennial herbaceous species. The open sand steppe communities are characteristic of the Pannonian biogeographic region, rich in native species (endemisms) and valuable associations. Their texture and structure are relatively simple yet sufficiently rich and varied, and their extreme environmental conditions have attracted the attention of many researchers. In the beautifully illustrated book by Pál Kitaibel, Descriptiones et Icones Plantarum Rariorum Hungariae (Descriptions and Icons of the Rare Plants of Hungary), many new species are presented, among them the notable Pótharaszti puszta’s Pótharaszti clover, later named the persistent clover. The persistent clover is a native plant species of the Pannonian biogeographic area, its world population grows in the sand ridge between the Danube and Tisza, and great responsibility for its preservation lies with our country.

Natural values

The so‑called Buckás‑forest vegetation is a sand steppe alternating with summer juniper, in which among the protected plant species grow the local sand meadow‑daisy, the alkanet populations, and the highly protected endemic persistent clover. The following protected plant species have been recorded in the area: sand meadow‑yarrow (Achillea ochroleuca), alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria), bulbous onion (Allium sphaerocephalum), sand milkvetch (Astragalus varius), sand knapweed (Centaurea arenaria), Buda knapweed (Centaurea sadleriana), shining seed‑pod (Coryspermum nitidum), persistent clover (Dianthus diutinus), late‑blooming clover (Dianthus serotinus), ephedra (Ephedra distachya), red‑brown lady’s‑slipper orchid (Epipactis atrorubens), Rakosi fescue (Festuca x wagneri), sand baby's‑breath (Gypsophila fastigiata), sand iris (Iris), variegated iris (Iris variegata), sand thrift (Onosma arenaria), sand stonecrop (Sedum hillebrandtii), sand feather‑grass (Stipa borysthenica), sand goat‑beard (Tragopogon floccosus).

In the insect fauna of the area we can find the rare species of the Danube–Tisza interfluve (e.g., fritillaries, ant lions). Among the reptiles, the sand lizard and the green lizard, and from the bird fauna the strictly protected snipe can be mentioned. The buckthorn rows also have significant landscape and geological values.

Main threatening factors and specific protection tasks

Illegal presence and campfires can endanger the natural values, therefore the area must be inspected regularly.