scholarly journals Wild food plants and wild edible fungi of Heihe valley (Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi, central China): herbophilia and indifference to fruits and mushrooms

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxiang Kang ◽  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Sebastian Ye ◽  
Shijiao Zhang ◽  
Jin Kang
Keyword(s):  
Chenopodium Album ◽  
Central China ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Edible Fungi ◽  
Wild Vegetables ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Wild Edible Fungi

<p>The aim of the study was to investigate knowledge and use of wild food plants and fungi in Han (i.e. Chinese) nationality villages in central China, including famine plants used in the respondents' childhood. A valley adjacent to the extremely species-rich temperate forest vegetation of the Taibai Nature Reserve was chosen. Eighty-two people from 5 villages took part in the study. Altogether, 159 wild food plant species and 13 fungi folk taxa were mentioned by informants. The mean number of freelisted wild foods was very high (24.8; median – 21.5). An average respondent listed many species of wild vegetables (mean – 17, me- dian – 14.5), a few wild fruits (mean – 5.9 and median – 6) and very few fungi (mean – 1.9, median – 1), which they had eaten.</p> <p>Over 50% of respondents mentioned gathering the young shoots or leaves of <em>Celastrus orbiculatus</em>, <em>Staphylea bumalda </em>and <em>S. holocapra</em>, <em>Caryopteris divaricata</em>, <em>Helwingia japonica</em>, <em>P</em><em>teridium aquilinum</em>, <em>Pimpinella </em>sp., <em>Amaranthus </em>spp., <em>Matteucia struthiopteris</em>, <em>Allium </em>spp., <em>Cardamine macrophylla </em>and <em>Chenopodium album</em>. Only one species of fruits (<em>Schisandra sphenanthera</em>) and none of the mushrooms were mentioned by over half of the respondents. Although very diverse, it can be noted that the use of wild vegetables has decreased compared to the second half of the 20th century, as informants listed several plants which they had stopped using (e.g. <em>Abelia engleriana</em>) due to the availability of cultivated vegetables and other foodstuffs. On the other hand, the collection of the most well-known wild vegetables is maintained by selling them to tourists visiting agritourist farms, and restaurants.</p>

scholarly journals Wild food plants and fungi used by Ukrainians in the western part of the Maramureş region in Romania

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Kinga Stawarczyk ◽  
Tomasz Kosiek ◽  
Marcin Pietras ◽  
Anna Kujawa
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Edible Fungi ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Voucher Specimens

Wild food and fungi use in the countryside has always been an important part of human-nature relationships. Due to social changes in most rural areas of Europe this part of traditional ecological knowledge is shrinking. The aim of our study was to record the use of wild foods and plants among the Ukrainian (Carpatho-Rusyns) minority in the western part of Romanian Maramureş. We carried out 64 interviews in two villages. Voucher specimens were collected and DNA barcoding was used to identify most fungi taxa. We recorded the use of 44 taxa of plants altogether (including 8 taxa used only for herbal teas) and 24 taxa of fungi. On average 7.7 species of plants and 9.7 species of fungi were listed per interview. Edible fungi are thus an important part of local cuisine and they are eagerly gathered by everyone. The use of a few woodland bracket fungi is worth pointing out. No signs of degeneration of this knowledge were observed. Wild fruits are less collected now and wild greens are rarely collected nowadays. This pattern is typical of many places in Central Europe.

scholarly journals Wild food plants used in the villages of the Lake Vrana Nature Park (northern Dalmatia, Croatia)

2013 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Norma Fressel ◽  
Stjepan Perković
Keyword(s):  
Silene Latifolia ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Foeniculum Vulgare ◽  
Allium Ampeloprasum ◽  
Wild Vegetables ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Nature Park ◽  
Local Traditions

<p>Croatia is a country of diverse plant use traditions, which are still insufficiently documented. The aim of this study was to document local traditions of using wild food plants around Lake Vrana (northern Dalmatia, Zadar region). </p><p>We interviewed 43 inhabitants of six traditional villages north of Lake Vrana. On average 12 species were listed, which in total produced an inventory of 55 food plants and 3 fungi taxa. Wild vegetables were most widely collected, particularly by older women who gathered the plants mainly when herding their flocks of sheep. Wild fruits and mushrooms were rarely collected. The former used to be an important supplementary food for children, or for everyone during times of food shortage, and the latter were relatively rare due to the dry climate and shortage of woods.</p><p>The most commonly collected plants are wild vegetables: <em>Cichorium intybus</em>, <em>Foeniculum vulgare</em>, <em>Sonchus oleraceus</em>, <em>Asparagus acutifolius</em>, <em>Papaver rhoeas</em>, <em>Rumex pulcher</em>, <em>Daucus carota</em>, <em>Allium ampeloprasum</em> and <em>Silene latifolia</em>.</p>

scholarly journals The trauma of no-choice: Wild food ethnobotany in Yaghnobi and Tajik villages, Varzob Valley, Tajikistan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Sõukand ◽  
Julia Prakofjewa ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Local Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Forced Resettlement ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
High Level

AbstractDue to global change and the migration crisis both needing rapid attention, there has been growing debate about the drivers of change in the diet of migrants. Our study aimed to evaluate the consequences of forced resettlement on local ecological knowledge related to wild food plants among forcefully resettled Yaghnobi people in Tajikistan. We conducted 49 semi-structured in-depth interviews and recorded 27 wild food taxa and five unidentified folk taxa used by Yaghnobis and Tajiks in the villages surrounding Yaghnob Valley (including families ressetteled from Yaghnob Valley) in central Tajikitsan. The comparision between the two considered groups showed a high level of Tajikisation among Yaghnobis, both those who live alongside Tajiks as well as those living separately. The few families that still have distinct Yaghnobi plant uses are the ones which were given the opportunity to choose the spot in which to relocate and still visit the Yaghnob Valley regularly. On the basis of our study, we suggest that affording a choice of where to relocate is better than no choice, as the loss of motivation also affects the use of wild food plants. Given the pressure of the possible relocation of many groups of people in the light of global change, we suggest focusing efforts on studying similar cases in order to minimize the damage caused to people by relocation. The trauma of forced relocation, even just a few kilometers away, directly or indirectly affects wild food plant use and with this the food security of the community.

scholarly journals Shared but Threatened: The Heritage of Wild Food Plant Gathering among Different Linguistic and Religious Groups in the Ishkoman and Yasin Valleys, North Pakistan

Foods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Abdul Aziz ◽  
Arshad Mehmood Abbasi ◽  
Zahid Ullah ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Artemisia Annua ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
North Pakistan ◽  
Islamic Faith

A wild food ethnobotanical field study was conducted in the Ishkoman and Yasin valleys, located in the Hindukush Mountain Range of Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan. These valleys are inhabited by diverse, often marginalized, linguistic and religious groups. The field survey was conducted via one hundred and eighty semistructured interviews to record data in nine villages. Forty gathered wild food botanical and mycological taxa were recorded and identified. Comparative analysis among the different linguistic and religious groups revealed that the gathered wild food plants were homogenously used. This may be attributed to the sociocultural context of the study area, where most of the population professes the Ismaili Shia Islamic faith, and to the historical stratifications of different populations along the centuries, which may have determined complex adaptation processes and exchange of possibly distinct pre-existing food customs. A few wild plants had very rarely or never been previously reported as food resources in Pakistan, including Artemisia annua, Hedysarum falconeri, Iris hookeriana, Lepidium didymium and Saussurea lappa. Additionally, the recorded local knowledge is under threat and we analyzed possible factors that have caused this change. The recorded biocultural heritage could, however, represent a crucial driver, if properly revitalized, for assuring the food security of the local communities and also for further developing ecotourism and associated sustainable gastronomic initiatives in the area.

scholarly journals Wild food plant use in 21st century Europe: the disappearance of old traditions and the search for new cuisines involving wild edibles

2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Łuczaj ◽  
Andrea Pieroni ◽  
Javier Tardío ◽  
Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana ◽  
Renata Sõukand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Land Access ◽  
Plant Use ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Access Rights ◽  
Over Exploitation

The aim of this review is to present an overview of changes in the contemporary use of wild food plants in Europe, mainly using the examples of our home countries: Poland, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Sweden. We set the scene referring to the nutrition of 19th century peasants, involving many famine and emergency foods. Later we discuss such issues as children's wild snacks, the association between the decline of plant knowledge and the disappearance of plant use, the effects of over-exploitation, the decrease of the availability of plants due to ecosystem changes, land access rights for foragers and intoxication dangers. We also describe the 20th and 21st century vogues in wild plant use, particularly their shift into the domain of haute-cuisine.

scholarly journals The hidden Mediterranean diet: wild vegetables traditionally gathered and consumed in the Gargano area, Apulia, SE Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nello Biscotti ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Diet ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Traditional Environmental Knowledge ◽  
Wild Vegetables ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Culinary Uses

<p>Despite the extensive bio-scientific literature concerning the Mediterranean diet, which emerged in the last three decades, systematic ethnography-centered investigations on a crucial portion of this food system, linked to the traditional consumption of non-cultivated vegetables, are still largely lacking in many areas of the Mediterranean Basin.</p><p>In this research, an ethnobotanical field study focusing on wild vegetables traditionally gathered and consumed locally, was conducted in a few centers and villages located in the Gargano area, northern Apulia, SE Italy, by interviewing twenty-five elderly informants. The folk culinary uses of seventy-nine botanical taxa of wild vascular plants, belonging to nineteen families, were recorded, thus showing a remarkable resilience of traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) related to wild food plants. In particular, approximately one-fourth of the recorded wild vegetables are still very commonly gathered and consumed nowadays, while ten taxa have never been reported in previous ethnobotanical studies conducted in Southern Italy. These findings demonstrate the crucial cultural role played by folk cuisines in preserving TEK, despite significant socio-economic changes that have affected the study area during the past four decades.</p>

scholarly journals Wild Food Plant Gathering among Kalasha, Yidgha, Nuristani and Khowar Speakers in Chitral, NW Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9176
Author(s):  
Muhammad Abdul Aziz ◽  
Zahid Ullah ◽  
Andrea Pieroni
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Cultural Resilience ◽  
Wild Food Plant ◽  
Biocultural Heritage ◽  
Sisymbrium Irio

The documentation of local food resources among linguistic/cultural minorities is essential for fostering measures aimed at sustaining food biocultural heritage. Moreover, interdisciplinary studies on food cultural heritage represent a vital aspect of promoting environmental and social sustainability. The current study aimed to record the traditional foraging of wild food plants (WFPs) among three minority groups (Kalasha, Muslim Ismaili Yidgha, and Muslim Sunni Kamkata-vari speakers) as well as the dominant (Sunni Muslim) Kho/Chitrali people in the Kalasha and Lotkoh valleys, Chitral, NW Pakistan. A field survey recorded fifty-five locally gathered wild food plants and three mycological taxa. Most of the WFPs were used raw as snacks or as cooked vegetables, and Yidgha speakers reported the highest number of WFPs. Although the wild food plant uses of the four considered groups were quite similar, Yidgha speakers exclusively reported the use of Heracleum candicans, Matricaria chamomilla, Seriphidium brevifolium, and Sisymbrium irio. Similarly, Kalasha speakers reported the highest number of use reports, and along with Yidgha speakers they quoted a few WFPs that were frequently used only by them. The results of the study showed a remarkable degree of cultural adaptation of the minority groups to the dominant Kho/Chitrali culture, but also some signs of cultural resilience among those linguistic and religious minorities that were historically more marginalized (Kalasha and Yidgha speakers). The recorded food biocultural heritage should be seriously considered in future development programs aimed at fostering social cohesion and sustainability.

scholarly journals Active Wild Food Practices among Culturally Diverse Groups in the 21st Century across Latgale, Latvia

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 551
Author(s):  
Baiba Prūse ◽  
Andra Simanova ◽  
Ieva Mežaka ◽  
Raivo Kalle ◽  
Julia Prakofjewa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Food Plant ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Ethnobotanical Study ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Wild Food Plant

Local ecological knowledge (LEK), including but not limited to the use of wild food plants, plays a large role in sustainable natural resource management schemes, primarily due to the synergy between plants and people. There are calls for the study of LEK in culturally diverse areas due to a loss of knowledge, the active practice of utilizing wild plants in various parts of the world, and a decline in biodiversity. An ethnobotanical study in a border region of Latvia, characterised by diverse natural landscapes and people with deep spiritual attachments to nature, provided an opportunity for such insight, as well as the context to analyse wild food plant usages among different sociocultural groups, allowing us to explore the differences among these groups. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as part of a wider ethnobotanical field study to obtain information about wild food plants and their uses. The list of wild food plant uses, derived from 72 interviews, revealed a high level of homogenisation (in regards to knowledge) among the study groups, and that many local uses of wild food plants are still actively practiced. People did not gather plants as a recreational activity but rather as a source of diet diversification. The results provide evidence of the importance of safeguarding ecological and cultural diversity due to high local community dependency on natural resources.

scholarly journals Diversity of Some Important Wild Edible Plants of Kumaun Uttarakhand: A Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha . ◽  
P.B. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Wild Food ◽  
Wild Food Plants ◽  
Wild Fruits ◽  
Cultivated Species ◽  
Local Plants ◽  
Important Position ◽  
Locally Grown

Plants are the invaluable, incredible and traditional sources for the curability of various diseases in the form of medicines. Wild food plants, particularly wild fruits, have been an important element in the dietary traditions since the beginning of human civilization. The consumption of locally grown species is gaining an increasing interest, which also gives an important contribution to local communities’ health and welfare. In addition, wild fruits contain higher amounts of nutrients and bioactive compounds than many cultivated species. Fruits play at potential role in uplifting the economic condition as well as providing the food security to the local people. The tribal population stores a vast knowledge on utilization of local plants as food and other specific uses. Uttarakhand has very rich biodiversity also its diverse geographical area attract many people towards it in tourism. Wild edible fruit plants have traditionally occupied an important position in the socio-cultural, spiritual and health area of rural and tribal lives. Because in Uttarakhand theses wild fruits helps in health benefits many of them have medicinal importance, also theses fruits are part of source of income. 

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