Article

The distribution of the Hungarian oak (Quercus frainetto) in Romania is analyzed, along with the phytocoenological framing of the plant communities including this species in the Romanian literature. There are discussed the necesity of a newly proposed infracoenotaxa. In the Romanian flora, the Hungarian oak has a limited geographical distribution, namely in the southwest and north-west of Transylvania, Crișana, Banat, Oltenia, Muntenia, and Dobrogea, i. e. mostly in the western and southern parts of the country. Only relatively recent (since 1961), this species has been identified in the southern parts of Moldavia, namely in the hills of Tutova and Covurlui, in a very few forests. The forests of Hungarian oak are settled in the forest-steppe zone and in some cases reach even the lower part of the beech belt of vegetation, in hilly zone, between 230-400 m a.s.l., on plateaux or on sunny slopes, with south, east or west aspects, inclined at 5°-30°, in the oak (Quercus robur) area and in the lower part of the beech (Fagus sylvatica) floor. The phytosociological researches carried out on stands with Quercus frainetto in the historical province of Moldavia, led us to propose a new plant community, at the level of subassociation, based mainly on relevés made in the most typical stands with Hungarian oak in Eastern Romania. The new proposed subassociation, quercetosum frainetti subass. nov., is framed within ass. Quercetum frainetto-cerris Rudski 1949. It is pointed out that of the two coedifying species of the ass. Quercetum frainetto-cerris, only Quercus frainetto is present as a wild species in Moldavia, while Quercus cerris is totally absent. The following plant species are given as characteristic (diagnostic) ones for Moldavian Hungarian oak stands: Quercus dalechampii, Symphytum ottomanum, Ornithogalum orthophylllum subsp. kochii, Vinca herbacea, Sorbus domestica, as well as Carex muricata subsp. muricata. The structure of the live’s forms of this new proposed plant community is dominated by hemicriptophytes, phanerophytes, and terophytes, while in the phytogeographic structure the Eurasian species are dominant, followed by the European ones, with an important participation of the meridional species sensu lato.