Nature, flora and fauna, miscellaneous photos - Mogyoród, Hungary

Location:

GPS coordinates: Latitude 47°35'33", Longitude 19°15'20" (N47 35.55 - E19 15.33) Map

Black mulberry (Morus nigra) tree

The plant came to Hungary probably from Central-Asia. Formerly together with the white mulberry (originated in China) it was very common at the yards of almost every farmhouse in Hungary.

Mulberry fruit can be consumed raw, or as jam or preserve as well. In Hungary this fruit is sometimes called "tree-strawberry" or in the Transdanubia (Dunántúl) region usually "blackberry", probably due to the similar look.

Grazing Hungarian racka and other sheep on the hillside

Racka of Hortobágy is a traditional hungarian sheep breed. It is easy to recognize by its unusual V-shaped straight spiral-twisted horns. The ancestor of this breed is the Transcaspian urial or arkar (Ovis orientalis arkal or Ovis vignei var. arkal), the only one long-tailed wild sheep species. Racka sheep living in the Carpathian Basin possible since the Hungarian conquest in the 9th-10th centuries, but it is still unclear which ethnic group brought it to here (by linguistic history researches they were quite possibly the Hungarians).

There are two variations of racka sheep, a white and a black colored. Black racka is rarer, even the cossets and young lambs have already dark fur.

Geolycosa vultuosa wolf spider female takes care of her cocoon

The cocoon is a "ball" made of spider web, it protects the juvenile spiders for a while.

The Geolycosa vultuosa wolf spider can be easily confused with the relative Lycosa singoriensis wolf spider. The former is a little bit smaller and it has a bit different color (the bottom of the knee joints are orange-yellow, the base and peak of the leg sections are black). Beside the look their behavior is very similar. They live in a 30-40 cm deep vertical web strengthened hole, Megjelenésük mellett életmódjuk is nagyon hasonló, hálóval megerősített 30-40 cm mély függőleges üregben él, and the spider races down its pray from here. When the cavity is filled with water, the trapped air bubbles in the dense body hair helps the spider to survive for long time.

Pannonian zephyr blue plebejus butterfly (Plebejus sephirus)

The Pannonian zephyr blue butterfly is a relictum species from the last ice ige. In Hungary this butterfly is highly protected. The first time when this animal was found in Hungary was in 1944, at the nearby Fóti-Somlyó Hill (and for long they thought it can be found only here). The lifestyle and reproduction of this butterfly is inseparable from the Astragalus excapus plant (a kind of milk-vetch). Growing up of the caterpillar is helped by ants, which is achieved by producing a special mucus.

Giant snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) in a garden in early spring

The giant snowdrop (Galanthus elwesii) looks somewhat different from the common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), which is native in Hungarian forests. The base of the inner tepals of the former species is also green. It is important, because common snowdrop is protected in Hungary, and that flower shouldn't be picked.