Landscape ecological and visual significance of dendrological gardens in the Carpathian Basin

This article presents and summarizes our observations based on historical research and site visits of 130 dendrological gardens in Hungary and 36 sites in Transylvania. The results favourably demonstrate the outstanding ecological and landscape values of these dendrological gardens in the Carpathian Basin. The research identifies the most typical exotic woody species that can be still found in those dendrological gardens that were developed in the Carpathian Basin during the era of creating landscape gardens, which is the 19th century in our region. We have defined about twenty exotic tree species, located in the researched dendrological gardens, of which presence highly affects the architectural and botanical composition, just as the landscape appearance or atmosphere of these gardens. Beyond all these effects, the article also highlights two other important points of the dendrological gardens: firstly, these gardens were breeding and acclimatization centres for spreading the new woody species, while, on the other hand, representatives of the spontaneous flora remained as veteran trees in these protected gardens, representing - mainly due to their age - outstanding ecological, dendrological and cultural values.