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GENERAL INFORMATION
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Hungary's largest trees are catalogued in this webpage. The registry is based on my book "Hungary's Largest Trees - Dendromania" (Alexandra, 2005). The tree lists are continuously expanded/actualized, and anyone can contribute - in a controlled way.
What is big?
The original goal was to have a full list of trees having a >6 m girth. Not counting the hard-to-catalogue poplars and willows (they grow fast, die fast, and many of them are found in the impenetrable, jungle-like flood areas along the large rivers), there are about 200 such trees in the country, mostly oaks, limes, sweet chestnuts, planes. However, the lists have been expanded to include smaller trees as well (e.g., oaks, limes, chestnuts down to 500 cm, beech to 400 cm). Genera not reaching impressive sizes are not systematically surveyed, but stumbling on a specimen considered to be extreme large in its genus, it is put on the list.
How is the girth measured?
When measuring the trunk, the absolute minimal girth is sought between ground level and 130 cm height (wrap the tape around the trunk, and move around several times, searching for the minimal value anywhere, anyway between 0 and 130 cm heights). This is the only unambiguous way to compare trees. Usually trunks branching only above 130 cm are considered as true, single trees.
Other data
Some data, regarding the health of the tree, are sometimes given under "Notes". No particular attention was given to the age of the trees. Though it is certainly something that comes to everyone's mind and soul when facing a big tree, the age determination in most cases is very subjective. People tend to inflate their estimates. The simplest age-determination, ring-counting is in most cases impossible, even with drilling, due to the decay of the inner parts. To my experience (based on many logged trees), under the climatic and other conditions typical for Hungary, upper age limit for endemic trees rarely exceeds 200 years. Notable exceptions are some oaks, limes and sweet chestnuts. Probably the oldest of these are close to 400 years. As a rule of thumb, age of the tree is what the locals say, divided by two.
Classification
Assigning species names to individual trees is not easy. Trees frequently cross-breed, and in some cases there are as many classifications as taxonomers. In most cases, I tried to determine the species, but take it with a grain of salt. After all, this is more of a dedicated tree-collectors' webpage, and not of hard-core botanists'.
Sources of information
All trees in the lists were personally visited and measured by myself. The tree-hunt began in ~2000 with the help of available written sources, books, catalogues, shown under "Sources". These lists were then vastly expanded by the help of personal communications from a variety of people. Invaluable help was given by many people working for forestries, National Parks, but also by lay people. It is impossible to list them here, but their names show up in the lists. It seems, by now, a group of "professional" tree hunters, doing regular searches, and helping to make the lists as complete as possible, has developed. Their webpages are listed under "Links".
How to contribute to the list?
I am grateful for any new emailed information regarding large trees. I take a note, and try to visit and measure the particular tree as soon as possible (usually within a few months). The tree is then put on the list, together with the name of the informant. According to my experience, accuracy requires that a single hand measured all trees. Starting in 2010, some of the regular contributors will attain co-editor status, and can put their own data on the list. These data are indicated in different color, and will become "official" after I checked them myself.
Map
The Google Earth-based map allows easy navigation to the trees. The map can be enlarged, most conveniently, by double-clicks applied at the particular location. Since my first-generation GPS device was somewhat inaccurate, some coordinates could be unreliable. These coordinates are, over time, being re-measured and corrected.
Photo Gallery
Photos from the latest trips uncovering new trees - and sometimes revisiting known ones - are usually posted monthly.
The book
The book titled "Magyarország legnagyobb fái - Dendrománia" by György Pósfai (published by Alexandra, 2005, in Hungarian) lists about 400 trees and contains over 300 photos. Editing and printing was done with the help of the team of Balázs Kármán. It is still available from internet book distributors. A preliminary version of the first third (in Hungarian, without photos) can be read here and here.
The most frequent question
Which tree is the largest in Hungary? There is no definite answer. The lime of Ötvöskónyi measured 1038 cm in 2003, but the trunk is completely hollow, not even contiguous at the perimeter. The largest oak (Zsennye) was 980 cm, but most of it collapsed in 2006. The largest plane-tree was 992 cm in 2004, by now it is over 10 m. There are poplars over 10 m, but they seem to have merged trunks. I would consider the black poplar of Barcs, 1000 cm in 2005, the largest among the single-trunk, relatively healthy trees in the country.
A never-ending story
The measurements in the lists are snapshots of the trees. They increase (and sometimes decrease) in size over time, growth and decay occur, champion trees fall, and new ones grow up to make the lists. And there are always some hidden treasures, huge trees unknown to date that show suddenly up.
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