PROTECTED PLANTS AND ANIMALS OF HUNGARY Bajza Lenke Primary School Zsámbok, Hungary

Hungary is a small country in Central Europe. It has got hills, woods, rivers, lakes and plains. A lot of plants and animals are carefully protected all over the country, because they are in danger, they are rare, or they can be found only in our country. Several national parks help to protect our natural surroundings.

HELLEBORE They come out in winter, sometimes they grow from the snow. It happens that they bloom in December. That is why it is called the rose of Christmas. Its flowers are the harbingers of spring. Most parts of it are poisonous, but some of them are curative. It can be found in the Northern mountains.

OPHRYS Special kinds of orchids. The female flowers form a kind of arthropod and so they invite the males, which fly onto the flowers and pollinate them.

IRIS It grows 10-30cm tall. Its flowers are blue or purple, and the perigone is green. Its flowers are blue or purple, and the perigone is green. It’s poisonous. You can see it on the coins of 20Fts. It’s poisonous. You can see it on the coins of 20Fts. Its flowers bloom only for some hours. It can be found in the mountains of Zemplén and in the Nyírség.

PEONY Extremly rare. 90% of peonies living in the world can be found in Hungary. We can see them in May and June in the mountain called Mecsek. It likes half light. Its height is cm. People used to collect it for medical purposes. Its roots and seeds contain alcaloids which are good for antispasmodic and application of an emetic.

WATER CHESTNUT The chestnut of the poor. It’s a rare water- plant. It’s in danger in Europe, but here in Hungary we can find a lot of them. Its floating leaves form roses on the surface of the water. It’s flowers give a marvellous colour to the water of the lake. Fishermen did not like them, because its burrs caught in the net. Its fruit was eaten. It tastes like chestnuts. People cooked it, made flour of it, and then they baked bread with it. This plant lives in lake Tisza.

LANNER OR SAKER It is a raptorial. Tamed birds were used for hunting for centuries. It is one of the rarest birds which we carefully keep in Hungary. It lives in the woods of the mountains and the Great Hungarian Plain. It does not build own nest. It hatches eggs in the deserted nests of other raptorials or crows. The elder birds live here all year long, but the young spend the winter in North Africa.

TUFTED HERON It lives in all lakes of Hungary, but most of them live in the reeds the of Small Balaton. Nowadays the number of it is rising. Earlier it was hunted because of the marvellous feathers which were worn by it during the mating season. It hunts in the shoals. In autumn it looks for food in the fields, too. It hatches eggs in reeds and in trees by lakes. Both parents sit on 3-4 eggs.

LYNX It disappeared from our country for long time, but now we can find them again in the woods of Northern mountain range and the Alps It has got a short tail, long legs, whiskers and bushy hair on its ears. It eats field mice and roes. It’s nocturnal. Normally it has got two or three descendants.

YELLOW AND BACK SPOTTED LAND SALAMANDER The only salamander which lives in Hungary. Amphibian. It spends most of its life outside the water, but it needs it for the reproduction. Its food is worms, snails and other invertebratea. It is nocturnal. In winter it sleeps. The young salamander coms into the world vividly.

BUTTERFLIES Coenonympha oedippusPlebejus sephirus Macroglossum stellatarumMelanargia galathea Limenitis populi Nymphalis antiopa