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The Košice Zoological Garden offers a wide range of habitats from sunny exposed meadows, hedges and semi-natural well-lit to shaded forests with brooks together with concrete paths and animal cages. To best represent the area, 14 locations were selected. Total of 61 species were recorded. Most of the recorded species were epiphytic or epigeic; epilithic species were limited to a few limestone boulders or anthropogenic substrates. Besides common and widespread nitrophilous species, two recorded species are critically endangered (Arthonia radiata, Parmelia submontana), four are endangered (Evernia prunastri, Flavoparmelia caperata, Graphis scripta and Pleurosticta acetabulum), one is vulnerable (Usnea hirta), while eight are listed as near threatened in Slovakia. The discovery of Bryoria sp. is particularly interesting because of missing records of this species in the area. The lowest altitude of 412 m a.s.l. for Parmelia submontana in Slovakia was recorded. The region provides a suitable environment for a wide spectrum of lichen species and is worth of our biodiversity conservation concerns.

The presented sixth part of the series includes 18 new chorological records of vascular plants, five from Poland and thirteen from Slovakia. In Poland, the first spontaneous occurrence of Clinopodium nepeta subsp. nepeta outside cultivation is reported from Kraków. Also new localities of Euphorbia maculata, Panicum capillare, Plantago coronopus and Symphyotrichum ciliatum from southern Poland were found. In Slovakia, new records of alien Cardamine occulta, Lindernia dubia, Nigella damascena, Pistia stratiotes (with map of known records), Sagittaria latifolia, Senecio inaequidens, Silybum marianum and Vinca major were done as well as autochthonous Cotoneaster melanocarpus, Herniaria hirsuta, Verbascum speciosum and Xeranthemum annuum.

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New distribution data of Taraxacum cristatum (T. scanicum group), described in the year 2005, in Slovakia were recorded. During the intensive study of Slovak dandelions in herbarium collections and field course, additional 22 localities were found. The species has been recorded in 17 phytogeographical districts up to now, with the highest frequency in the western and the southern part of the country, preferring dry and xerothermic steppe grasslands, pastures and dry meadows from the class Festuco-Brometea. The altitudinal maximum in Slovakia, in 668 m a. s. l. was recorded in the Strážovské vrchy Mts. on the top of Mt. Baba. The updated distribution map is attached.

In 1884, Seed Station (Vetőmagvizsgáló Állomás) as a state institution of Hungary was established in Košice. On its ground probably the second institutional herbarium in this region was established. It gathered collections of wild and introduced plants from the vicinity of Košice and eastern Slovakia (Carpathian and Pannonian bioregions), including exsiccates of the collectors like A. Degen, L. de Thaisz and later M. Deyl. This herbarium later got into the administration of the Košice branch of the Central Agricultural Inspection and Testing Institute (Ústřední kontrolní a zkušební ústav zemědělský, ÚKZUZ) with the main office in Prague. In 1950, the Botanical Garden of the University of Agricultural and Forest Engineering (Vysoká škola poľnohospodárskeho a lesníckeho inžinierstva, VŠPLI) was established in Košice. Plant documentation material from the region of eastern Slovakia began to be concentrated there and another institutional herbarium, which was later taken over by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, was established. In 1960, the Botanical Garden in Košice was taken over by the Pedagogical Institute (Pedagogický inštitút), and the rather large herbarium was then reduced to 3,415 herbarium specimens. In the years 1958-1960, however, it was enriched by 9,539 herbarium specimens of the Košice branch of ÚKZUZ, which passed the herbarium from the years 1897 – 1943 to the botanical garden. In 1964, the botanical garden became a part of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University (UPJŠ). At that time, the herbarium included 16,000 herbarium specimens of seed plants. For many years, the herbarium had only provisional rooms for its storage. In the early 1990s, a part of the building of the Botanical Garden was rebuilt and herbarium depositary and study room were formed. Later an electronic database has been created and in recent years the herbarium specimens have also been digitized. In September 2020 the herbarium included about 55,000 specimens, of which more than 34,500 were registered in local database and some of them (more than 9,000) are digitized.

Xanthium spinosum is a naturalized neophyte of agricultural land, its distribution and habitats have not yet been studied in detail in Slovakia. The aim of the work was to collect all floristic data of this weed species, to present its current and historical distribution, and to characterize its typical habitats in Slovakia. As shown in analysis, Xanthium spinosum occurs mainly in the Pannonian region; in the Carpathians it was more frequent only in the 19 th century and in connection with the transport of diaspores by sheep wool. The number of localities increased gradually until the 1970s, but then fell sharply due to the intensification of agriculture. Consequently, it is currently not considered to be a significant weed in Slovakia. X. spinosum mostly occupies open and sunny ruderal habitats (road edges, manure pits, field roads, abandoned fields and places) and especially pastures, rarely river banks. Both in the past and today, the species rarely occurs in fields.

The fourth part of the series includes 13 new chorological records of vascular plants from Poland and Slovakia. From Poland, the first record of Rubus austroslovacus from the Vistula River valley is given as well as the first record of Erigeron ×huelsenii from Silesia. Beside this, spontaneous occurrence of Portulaca grandiflora in Kraków and P. oleracea subsp. oleracea in Suwałki has been recorded outside the cultivation. In Slovakia, new sites of endangered species Dichostylis micheliana and Stipa pulcherrima were found as well as new distribution data about Sonchus palustris and Reynoutria japonica. From railway stations, Tribulus terrestris is reported for the first time from eastern Slovakia likewise two new sites of alien species Euphorbia davidii, previously reported from only single locality in southeastern Slovakia. Alien species Xanthium spinosum was reported from the Štiavnické vrchy Mts. and also Sisyrinchium montanum in the Slanské vrchy Mts. Third report of Sagittaria latifolia in Slovakia is given with short characteristic of its coenological conditions.