Krisztina Szabo, Vilmos Lovas and Zsolt Eros-Honti
Garden and Open Space Design, Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Hungary
Owing to the increasing environmental disturbances, afforestation of our cities became a difficult objective. To elaborate liveable environments, the most important mission of experts is to find plant species and cultivars tolerating urban conditions and to elaborate methods for helping their survival. A possible solution is using artificial mycorrhizae which have manifold beneficial effects for the host tree. In our research we present the first results on a large-scale investigation on artificially inoculated Acer buergerianum species in urban domains.
Members of the genus Acer are rarely planted in treelines Acer buergerianum is one of the most popular trees in Easter Asian cities and it was included also in the Urban Green Project 2021 as well. Although in Hungary it is found only as solitaire tree mainly in collection garden, owing to its good tolerance and high decorative value it may have a potential role in Hungarian urban afforestation.
In our study, endomycorrhizal products available in Hungary were tested on 120 specimens of Acer buergerianum seedlings. We evaluated the effects of different products and differing inoculation methods. We examined the colonisation level of the roots and evaluated the vegetative growth intensity of the plants.
Keywords: Urban trees, Afforestation, Endomycorrhiza, Inoculums.