Identification, Mapping and Ethnobotany of Plant Species in the Peruvian High Andean Wetlands: Stimulating Biodiversity Conservation Efforts towards Sustainability

The high Andean wetlands of Peru provide not only the well-known ecosystem services such as water storage, flood mitigation, erosion control, and purification of water, but are also a source of income for local economies (as fodder), have medicinal properties, are a source of food, contribute to the development of ecotourism among many other uses. Economic and population growth have already damaged many parts of the high Andean wetlands including their rich flora. In order to promote the conservation of its diversity and unique flora, this study conducted extensive botanical explorations to identify and map the floristic composition of the high Andean wetlands of La Libertad, Peru, as well as their influence on local communities. The authors conducted explorations taking taxonomic, biogeographic and ethno biological data of the flora species as well as their therapeutic and economic botany. The study identified 64 species of flora distributed in 46 genera and 27 families including Asteraceae (with 8 species), Juncaceae (with 7 species), Poaceae (with 6 species), Cyperaceae (with 5 species), Licopodiaceae and Rosaceae (with 4 species each), Apiaceae, Gentianaceae, Orobanchaceae and Sphagnaceae (with 3 species each) and Poligonaceae (with 2 species). With reference to economic botany, it was found that 32.8% of species constitute resources with a very good economic benefit. The study concludes that it is imperative to take actions to protect the high Andean wetlands as they are ecosystems with great biodiversity. This study contribution expects to raise concerns regarding the increasing impact of economic and population growth on the loss of not only natural habitats but species as well. Conservation efforts will help protect the heritage of the Andes wetlands for future generations.

ETNOBOTÂNICA NO ACRE: TRÊS DÉCADAS DE PESQUISAS CIENTÍFICAS REALIZADAS NO ESTADO (1990-2020)

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo traçar um panorama dos 30 anos de pesquisa com etnobotânica no Estado do Acre a partir de um levantamento bibliográfico sistemático e aprofundado. A metodologia utilizada foi de busca por palavras-chave, sendo utilizadas nas pesquisas “etnobotânica Acre”, “ethnobotany Acre Brazil”, “botânica econômica Acre”, “economic botany Acre Brazil”. A pesquisa foi realizada em bases bibliográficas, bibliotecas digitais e físicas, periódicos, livros e acervos acadêmicos, nacionais e internacionais. Foram encontrados 111 trabalhos publicados entre 1990 e 2019, sendo que, aproximadamente, 86 trabalhos (77% do total) foram publicados na última década. Foram encontrados diferentes tipos de publicações, sendo elas capítulo de livro, artigo científico, resumo em congresso, livros, dissertações de mestrado, teses de doutorado, documento técnico e tese de livre docência. As temáticas mais estudadas nesses trabalhos foram plantas medicinais, agrobiodiversidade, plantas úteis e plantas alimentícias, que, juntas, representam aproximadamente 95% dos estudos. As populações tradicionais mais estudadas foram seringueiros e indígenas. Esses estudos foram desenvolvidos em diferentes municípios do Estado do Acre, sendo os mais representados Xapurí, com 17, Feijó, com 15, e Rio Branco, com 13 estudos. Esses resultados evidenciam como as pesquisas em etnobotânica no Acre são recentes e, além disso, quais as regiões e populações ainda podem ser estudadas.

Sixty Years with the Chrysobalanaceae

A review is given of the studies of Ghillean Prance and associates on the Chrysobalanaceae over the past sixty years. This has focussed on defining the generic boundaries in the family and on monographic work with a worldwide approach to this pantropical family. The importance of field studies for work on monographs and Floras is emphasized. Monographs are still the basis for much work on conservation, ecology and economic botany and are needed as a foundation for molecular studies. The importance of being open to experimenting with new techniques and as a result being willing to change the taxonomy in accordance with new findings is demonstrated and emphasized. The twelve genera of the Chrysobalanaceae at the beginning of this career-long study have now increased to twenty-eight in order to present a much better monophyletic and evolutionary arrangement based on recent molecular evidence. In particular it was necessary to divide and rearrange the originally large genera Parinari and Licania into a number of smaller segregate genera. All known species were included in a worldwide monograph published in 2003. A brief review of the economic use for the family is given.

Between Metropole and Province: circulating botany in British museums, 1870–1940

Exchange of duplicate specimens was an important element of the relationship between metropolitan and regional museums in the period 1870–1940. Evidence of transfers of botanical museum objects such as economic botany specimens is explored for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and six museums outside the capital: Cambridge University Botanical Museum, National Museum Wales, Glasgow Museums, Liverpool World Museum, Manchester Museum and Warrington Museum. Botany became an important element in these museums soon after their foundation, sometimes relying heavily on Kew material as in the case of Glasgow and Warrington, and usually with a strong element of economic botany (except in the case of Cambridge). Patterns of exchange depended on personal connections and rarely took the form of symmetrical relationships. Botanical displays declined in importance at various points between the 1920s and 1960s, and today only Warrington Museum has a botanical gallery open to the public. However, botanical objects are finding new roles in displays on subjects such as local history, history of collections, natural history and migration.

ETNOBOTÂNICA NO ACRE: TRÊS DÉCADAS DE PESQUISAS CIENTÍFICAS REALIZADAS NO ESTADO (1990-2020)

<p class="Normal1">O presente trabalho teve como objetivo traçar um panorama dos 30 anos de pesquisa com etnobotânica no Estado do Acre a partir de um levantamento bibliográfico sistemático e aprofundado. A metodologia utilizada foi de busca por palavras-chave, sendo utilizadas nas pesquisas “etnobotânica Acre”, “ethnobotany Acre Brazil”, “botânica econômica Acre”, “economic botany Acre Brazil”. A pesquisa foi realizada em bases bibliográficas, bibliotecas digitais e físicas, periódicos, livros e acervos acadêmicos, nacionais e internacionais. Foram encontrados 111 trabalhos publicados entre 1990 e 2019, sendo que, aproximadamente, 86 trabalhos (77% do total) foram publicados na última década. Foram encontrados diferentes tipos de publicações, sendo elas capítulo de livro, artigo científico, resumo em congresso, livros, dissertações de mestrado, teses de doutorado, documento técnico e tese de livre docência. As temáticas mais estudadas nesses trabalhos foram plantas medicinais, agrobiodiversidade, plantas úteis e plantas alimentícias, que, juntas, representam aproximadamente 95% dos estudos. As populações tradicionais mais estudadas foram seringueiros e indígenas. Esses estudos foram desenvolvidos em diferentes municípios do Estado do Acre, sendo os mais representados Xapurí, com 17, Feijó, com 15, e Rio Branco, com 13 estudos. Esses resultados evidenciam como as pesquisas em etnobotânica no Acre são recentes e, além disso, quais as regiões e populações ainda podem ser estudadas.</p>

Medicinal plants of the Tomsk region: questions of economic botany

Some scientific problems in the economic botany area are represented in the article. The list of medicinal plants that were grown on the territory of the Tomsk region was complied and analyzed. According to the literature, the degree of knowledge of the resources of medicinal plants in the Tomsk region was determined. We investigated Tomsk drugstores’ assortment of drugs plant species of the Tomsk region have been identified, which can be used in the production of medicines to meet the demand in this territory.

Ferdinand von Mueller’s phytochemical laboratory

Victoria’s government botanist and, at the time, Director of the Botanic Garden, Ferdinand von Mueller had a strong interest in the possible industrial and medicinal uses of plant products (economic botany), for which he established a phytochemical laboratory and engaged the services of qualified chemists to conduct experiments on wood distillation, paper-making, essential oils, alkaloids, ash of woods and seaweeds, dyes and tanning materials, and the strength of Australian timbers. The careers of Mueller’s laboratory chemists, George Christian Hoffmann, Ludwig Rummel, and Johann Georg Luehmann, and their interactions with other members of the colonial science and technology community are also described in this article.

KEW GARDENS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE SCHOOL MUSEUM IN BRITAIN, 1880–1930

The idea of the school museum as an active resource for object-based learning played an important but now neglected part in programmes of educational reform during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the opening decades of the twentieth. In this article we focus on the role of the Kew Museum of Economic Botany in supplying schools with botanical specimens and artefacts for their own museums during this period, to support a broad variety of curricular agendas, from nature study to geography and beyond. The evidence suggests that this scheme was remarkably popular, with demand among teachers for museum objects outstripping supply, and increasingly being met in other ways. Seen from the perspective of Kew, the distribution of specimens, artefacts, and visual materials to schools was a way of extending the ethos of economic botany into the classroom. For the teachers who requested specimens in large numbers, and the pupils who studied and handled them, however, such objects may have had other meanings and uses. More broadly, we propose new avenues for study that can help us to better appreciate the ways in which museum objects, expertise, and practices moved across professional, institutional, and increasingly global boundaries in this period.