Abstract
Despite its present limited range in Europe, larch (Larix) was widespread over nearly whole European territory in the Last Glacial Period. Several well-determined findings of its pollen grains and macrofossils within natural sedimentary archives and archaeological sites were rather recently made in both the Czech and Slovak Republics for this period.
These new records extend the earlier survey published with regard to this territory. In Central Bohemia, Larix was present in the vicinity of Vltava River near Prague-Podbaba in between ca 40.0 uncal ky and 30.0 uncal ky BP.
This record partly supports the credibility of other, so far problematic, findings of Larix on the territory of Bohemia. Reliable records of Larix pollen from organic sediments and loess of the Last Glacial age exist from southern Moravia, and quite recently, also from Moravian section of the Carpathians and from the Moravian Gate (Northern Moravia).
Findings of both the pollen grains and macroremains of Larix in the Slovak Carpathians witness a continual presence of this species from the Last Glacial Period to the present time; larch is commonly spread in Slovak Republic even today and there are no doubts about its native occurrence in this area. In the Late Holocene, humans could have participated in its disappearance, yet this suggestion is only speculative and deserves further verification.