General introduction:

The Collection of Algae contains 17000 specimens. Its part called Herbarium Algarum is a classical plant collection, with dried and pressed plants. Mainly the larger seaweed is preserved here. The collection of freshwater algae is poorer, with the exception of Characeae. The herbarium comprises 10,000 specimens, among them, some 200 types.
The algological herbarium was established by Gyula Istvánffy, whose main field of interest was algology. In that time the Department had several famous old exsiccata (e.g. Agardh: Algae Cap. Bonae Spei, Bauer: Characeae Europaeae, Brébisson: Reliquiae Brébissonianae, Kützing: Algarum aquae dulcis Germanicarum and several series of Rabenhorst). Apart from these series lots of herbaria comprised significant algological material, e.g. that of Hazslinszky, Sadler and Staub. The Adriatic collection of Pius Titius is especially remarkable.
Later on, the Collection was enlarged by the collecting activity of the staff, first of all Istvánffy, then of Filarszky and Moesz. Filarszky could obtain several further volumes of the above mentioned exsiccata, partly by purchase, partly as presents or in exchange of the centuriae of the Flora Hungarica Exsiccata.
Márta Halász used to work in the Collection from 1938 till her retirement in 1963. Her main field of interest was the algal vegetation of hot water springs. Unfortunately, her samples were not preserved in the Collection.
Erzsébet Kol was employed in the Botanical Department from 1948 and she donated her valuable collection of living algae to the Museum. She worked here almost till death, ordering and enriching this collection. Considerable part of the preserved collection, however, gives further evidence of her activity as well. For the exsiccata designed by her entitled ‘A Kárpátmedence algái’ (Algae of the Carpathian Basin), 105 algal species were collected. Unfortunately this exsiccata was not published.
Zsuzsa Páricsy-Komáromy (1943-1985) initiated the study of soil algae within the Botanical Department. Her tragically short life did not make her possible to summarise all of the available information on soil algae in Hungary, but her data on the algal flora of different soil types all over Hungary are very important elements of our knowledge.
Lajos Hajdu worked in the Department from 1971 till 1982. Apart from his research work he ordered the algological herbarium and marked the types. In 1980, he directed the computerization of the Hortobágyi-catalogue. From 1982, Judit Padisák was in charge of the herbarium, and, from 1985, the database. Éva Ács worked in the Collection from 1987 till 1995.
From 1995 Krisztina Buczkó is the curator of the algological collection.
The most valuable part of the collection of microscopic slides is a set of 1016 slides made by József Pantocsek, attracting major international interest even today, containing 120 type specimens. This is only one fifth of the original Pantocsek collection, the rest was destroyed during World War II. In 1987, the Department obtained the diatom slide collection of László Vida, collected mainly from the Bakony Mts. The collection of diatom slides is gradually increasing. It contains currently about 3000 items.
There are two other parts of the algological collections: microphotographs and drawings.

Inventory order:

Wardrobe catalogue

Searching possibility:

Genera in taxonomical arrangement, species under genus alphabetically. Here is the list of the taxa of the algological herbarium.

Accessibility:

After previous discussion with the curator of the alga collection can be visited.

Number of specimens:

ca. 17000 specimens

Type and original materials:

The type collection comprises 320 type specimens

Curator of collection:

Krisztina Buczkó