Hungary

Large Carpinus pollard
(on left) with a large Acer campestre tree growing out on the right - Hárskút

A study of practical tree pollarding techniques in Europe -
Read the outline of Helen Read's actual, updated Report on Hungary pdf  (2.81MB)

Alternatively catch up with Helen's diary, Read the section on Hungary.

For the full Report click back to the International section

Hungary is not particularly rich in ancient trees, but there are many veteran trees scattered all over the countryside, and a number of surviving wood-pastures with high concentrations of old trees. Most of these trees are pollards (shredding, if at all practised, left few remains), however, many ancient oaks are not pollarded. This may be connected to a strong tradition in pannage.

Veteran trees have received considerable attention as habitats, but rather less as individual living beings. The study of ancient tree management techniques have started only recently, but – since Hungary was industrialized later than most of Western Europe – there is a lot of useful ethnographic material.

There are two surveys of ancient trees. The older is a longer list, although even this is not complete, and tends to omit recording the number of trees in wood-pastures, and, in fact, wood-pastures in general. Pollarding is not recorded, either.  Further information  
The more recent list is György Pósfai’s Dendromania, which claims to contain all trees with more than 600 cm GBH. For further information, see the publisher’s website


In 1997, WWF Hungary published a booklet about the known wood-pastures sites in Hungary. This is not (yet?) available on-line, but it still may be possible to order free copies from www.wwf.hu

Some people dealing with ancient trees
Some recent publications connected to ancient trees
Some pictures of ancient trees in Hungary