The occurrence of the relict plant, Trichophorum pumilum, in the Western Carpathians in the context of its distribution and ecology in Eurasia.

Vascular-plant relict species Trichophorum pumilum has a disjunct distribution range and in Europe (not considering Caucasus and South Ural Mts) it currently occurs only in the Alps, Norway and a small area in the Western Carpathians. This study reviews all available data on the distribution and ecology of this species in Europe, provides vegetation and ecological characteristics of recent populations in the Western Carpathians and compares them with that found in other European regions. In the Western Carpathians this species is found in a small area in an Inner-Carpathian basin in northern Slovakia, the Liptov, Poprad and Hornád Basin, and rarely reaches the margins of adjacent mountains. It is currently present at 10 sites in this area. This species is therefore classified in the IUCN category “endangered”. Occurrence of Trichophorum pumilum is associated with calcareous fens, usually those initiated during the late glacial and surrounded by extremely mineral-rich active travertine springs. Finds of macrofossils suggest that the species was more widespread in Europe and Slovakia during the last glacial. Currently this species occurs in communities of the Caricion davallianae alliance, associations Glauco-Trichophoretum pumili and Caricetum davallianae. Habitat and vegetation affinity differ substantially from that found at most other European localities of this species. The reasons for this difference are the specific ecological conditions of travertine springs and surrounding fens, which enabled the postglacial survival of this species at rather low altitudes in the temperate zone. One of the most important differences is the occurrence of halophytic and subhalophytic species at the Western-Carpathian localities, which makes their vegetation somewhat analogous to that of T. pumilum fens found in the Russian Altai Mts. We demonstrate this similarity by detrended correspondence analysis of all available individual relevés from the Carpathians, the Alps and Altai.