Wild/Indigenous & Traditional Food Plants

Läbi aegade on inimene saanud oma toidu teda ümbritsevast loodusest. Ka meie esivanemad on siin maal elades saanud kõigepealt põhitoidu ja hiljem leivakõrvase just loodusest. Kuigi potentsiaalselt söödavate taimede hulk on Eestis oluliselt suurem, on suuremal või vähemal määral toiduks kasutatud pea 200 siinses looduses leiduvat taimeliiki. Raamatu eesmärk on tuua lugejani praeguse Eesti territooriumil elanud ja elavate inimeste looduslike taimede toiduks kasutamise kultuurilugu vastates küsimustele: mida Eestimaal elanud inimesed on loodusest korjanud toiduks, milleks ja kuidas neid taimi kasutanud, kuidas on taimekasutus aja jooksul muutunud, millised taimed on tänaseks kasutusest kõrvale heidetud ja millised uued taimed asemele tulnud?

‘This is a very important book. Taken together, the collected papers present a rich picture of the vital role played by peasant women around the world. They are struggling to preserve, in the face of modern agribusiness, the agricultural wisdom of the past and the diversity of plants that have been used for both food and medicine. It is vital that decision makers, especially in the developing world, heed the knowledge of these women who understand so well the art of a sustainable lifestyle. Women and Plants must be in the library of every individual who cares about the future of our planet.’
Jane Goodall

It has been estimated that 369,000 species of flowering plants are known to science (RBG Kew 2016) and that the planet harbors somewhere between 400,000 (Gaston 2010) and perhaps 450,000 (Pimm and Joppa 2015) species of flowering plants total. Between 30,000 and 50,000 plants may be edible in some form to people (SEB n.d.; FAO 1985). Of these edible species, estimates of the numbers that have been used as food by people somewhere at some time range from 7,000 (FAO n.d.) to 12,000 (Kunkel 1984). Perhaps 3,000 (Shand 2005) to 6,000 (Chweya and Mnzava 1997) taxa of plants are still harvested with some regularity for use as food or in food products worldwide.

Yet despite this vast endowment of edible plants, relatively few species have come to dominate human diets. For example, Myers (1984) reported that 7 crops provide 75% of human nutrition, Robert and Christine Prescott-Allen (1990) found that 103 species account for 90% of the global food supply, and Padulosi and Pignone (1997) documented only 150 commercialized species of edible plants around the world. Elusive though the exact number of how many edible plants exist and how many dominate in providing human nutrition, it is easy to identify a list of the principle crops including: sugarcane, maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, beets, cassava (manioc), tomatoes, bananas/plantains, citrus, barley, watermelons, sweet potatoes, onions, apples, grapes, cabbage and other leafy brassicas, cucumbers and gherkins, rapeseed (for oil), yams, sorghum, coconuts, eggplant, beans, cottonseed (for oil), mangoes, peanuts, sunflower seed, peppers (Capsicum), melons, peas, millet, pears, lettuce, squash, garlic, spinach and oats.

Although it might be nice to have precise numbers relating to specific questions with well-defined criteria in addressing the question of “how many plants feed the world,” the real value in this discussion is the knowledge that the diets of most contemporary people are not as diverse as they could be and not as diverse as perhaps they should be for optimal nutrition, culinary interest, gastronomic enjoyment, food security and the overall sustainability of food systems. Despite recent food movements (e.g., “slow food” and “local food”), as a society, we ask few probing questions about the foods we eat, we know little about where and how they are grown and processed, we are largely incapable of identifying food plant origins, we are disconnected from the importance of the wild relatives of our favorite foods that help maintain healthy crops, and we wonder little about how many desirable edible plants we might be missing. In general, we demand only that our food satisfies our palates (which is easily done with fat, sugar and salt),  curbs hunger and provides basic nutrients and calories.

The hope for this dictionary is to help draw attention to the potential of the tremendous diversity of food plants in the Americas by documenting their origins, uses and common names. We do not contend that all of the plants presented have commercial potential, but merely that nature’s food pantry is wide, deep and scarcely appreciated.

Contained in 3,990 entries the compendium includes:

• More than 4,100 taxa, mostly at the species level, with some subspecies, hybrids and varieties;
• 6,854 Latin names including synonyms;
• More than 31,000 common names primarily in English, Portuguese and Spanish, with some from French-speaking areas and Suriname, as well as many from indigenous languages.

Common names in indigenous languages generally are listed under the dominant language of the region with the native language in parentheses. Many of the native names are spelled phonetically.

Information has been derived from extensive fieldwork by the authors along with consulting 2,325 secondary references. The entries are organized by genus and species. The status of the Latin names follows The Plant List and Tropicos from the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG-Tropicos).

There is increasing recognition of the significance of how traditional knowledges (TKs) can inform our understanding of the impacts of climate change and strategies for adaptation and mitigation. And yet there are potential risks to indigenous peoples in sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. We intend the term indigenous peoples to designate the diverse populations in the U.S. who could interact with federal and non-indigenous climate change initiatives in ways that involve TKs, whether in the U.S. they are federally-recognized, state-recognized, or unrecognized. We refer to “indigenous peoples” and “tribes” interchangeably in this document, unless we are talking about a specific group or a specific status related to recognition. These guidelines are intended to examine the significance of TKs in relation to climate change and the potential risks to indigenous peoples in the U.S. for sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. Although it is common to refer to "traditional knowledge(s)" as individual pieces of information, this term also refers to traditional “knowledge systems" that are deeply embedded in indigenous ways of life. These guidelines use the phrase "traditional knowledges" deliberately in plural form because knowledges are emergent from the symbiotic relationship of indigenous peoples and places - a nature-culture nexus. Tribes and indigenous peoples use “knowledges” to emphasize that there are diverse forms of traditional knowledge and knowledge systems that must be recognized as unique to each tribe and knowledge holder. These guidelines should be used to inform the development of specific protocols in direct and close consultation with indigenous peoples. [http://climatetkw.wordpress.com/] Federal agencies and national climate change initiatives are recognizing the significance of TKs, and are proposing and funding collaborative efforts between indigenous communities and federal and non-indigenous climate change entities in ways that involve TKs. This interaction requires an understanding of how individual tribes and knowledge holders choose to share or not to share TKs.

Biologically diverse diets are more likely to be nutritionally
replete, and contain intrinsic protective
factors. An increasing number of initiatives promote
dietary diversity for improved child nutrition and
protection against chronic diseases. The agricultural
biodiversity central to diverse diets, including
many lesser-known and underutilized plant species,
has developed over millennia through biocultural
evolution of the plant genome and associated cultural
codes. However, the biocultural diversity of
food plants is under threat from changing eating
patterns, intensive agriculture, and climate change,
resulting in a loss of local food plant diversity from
diets and threatening food and nutrition security. We
recommend a holistic approach promoting the use
of traditional food plant diversity together with
conservation of genetic material and associated
traditional knowledge.

New finds of lesser celandine (Ficaria verna HUDS.) root tubers from Neolithic sites in Northern Germany and Denmark are presented here and compared with a literature-based compilation of further archaeological finds. The fact that archeological finds of charred lesser celandine tubers are primarily dated within the Mesolithic and the Neolithic, especially in the Early Neolithic, indicates that the occurrence of tubers was closely linked to the gathering of wild plants which still played an important role at the onset of the Neolithic. The discussion about the origin and interpretation of the charred tuber finds, focussing on related site functions and archaeological contexts, suggests that tubers in domestic contexts can widely be interpreted as wild food, at least for Stone Age periods, whereas those from cremation graves stem probably from accidental burning of the natural vegetation associated with heating of the topsoil.

In this ethnobotanical study, the authors provide the first quantitative analysis of the use of wild edible plants in Estonia, describing the domains and assessing the food importance of different species. The information was collected using free-listing written questionnaires and concerned plants used by the respondents in their childhood. As part of a major study, this article covers the responses of professionals with some botanical education at vocational or university level, to ensure the greatest possible reliability without using voucher specimens. Fifty-eight respondents provided information on the use of 137 plant taxa, corresponding to approximately 6% of the native and naturalized vascular plants of Estonia. According to use frequency, the most typical wild food plant of Estonia is a fruit, eaten raw as a snack. The results clearly signal that the majority of famine and food shortage plants had already been forgotten by the end of the 20th century, but new plants have been introduced as green vegetables for making salads. Despite changes in the nomenclature of the plants, the use of wild food plants in Estonia was still thriving at the turn of the 20th century, covering many domains already forgotten in urbanized modern Europe.

Öz: Kültürel değerlerin içinde önemli yeri olan ve insanları bir yeri ziyaret etmeye yönelten etkenlerden birisi de gastronomik unsurlardır. Dünyanın en zengin mutfaklarından olan Türk mutfağının da önemli bir çekicilik unsuru olduğu bilinmektedir. Son yıllarda yeni tatlar keşfetmek amacıyla gerçekleştirilen gastronomi turizmi ile bölgelerin yöresel mutfakları ön plana çıkartılıp bölgelerin tanıtımı yapılmakta ve ekonomik olarak da kalkınması sağlanmaktadır. Bu kapsamda çalışmanın amacı, Kanyonları, Cam Terası ve doğal güzellikleri ile önemli turizm hareketliliğine sahip Uşak İli Ulubey İlçesi'nin yöresel mutfağının gastronomi turizmi açısından önemini ortaya koymak ve Ulubey yöresel yemeklerinin turistik tanıtımı açısından paydaşlara öneriler getirmektir. Bu çalışma, Ulubey'in turizm gelirinin arttırılması ve ilçe turizminin on iki aya yayılması için turizm faaliyetlerinin çeşitlendirilmesi amacıyla Bakanlık, yerel yönetim ve sektör kuruluşlarına çıkarımlar sağlaması açısından önem arz etmektedir. Abs: One of the factors that have an important place in cultural values and direct people to visit a place is gastronomic elements. It is known that the Turkish cuisine, which is one of the richest cuisines of the world, is also an important charm element. In recent years, with the gastronomic tourism aimed at discovering new tastes, local cuisines of the regions have been brought to the forefront and the regions have been introduced and economic development has been achieved. The purpose of this study is to bring out the importance of gastronomy tourism of the local cuisine of the Uşak province Ulubey District, which has canyons, glass terraces and natural beauties, and important tourism movement, and to suggest suggestions for Ulubey regional. This study is of great importance in terms of providing inferences to Ministry, local government and sector organizations with the aim of increasing tourism revenues of Ulubey and diversifying tourism activities in order to spread the district tourism to 12 months. *

This research contributes to a better understanding of the criteria used for the selection of plants for making beverages. Worldwide, not only the leaves of Camellia sinensis, but also various other plants are used for making tea. We argue that the selection of plants for making tea (in Estonian teetaimed) depends on specific features possessed by or attributed to the plants. 54 plant taxa and one lichen were identified as being used for making tea, based on the analysis of Estonian historical handwritten archival records on plant use for the period from 1887 to 1994. The influence of popular literature on the use of plants for making tea was also assessed. The suitability of a plant for making tea depends on a combination of factors like multifunctional use, mild taste and attributed medicinal properties. The variety of medicinal properties attributed to teetaimed in folk medicine allowed herbal tea drinking to be considered as mild disease prevention. Hence, the roots of the Estonian tea tradition lie in the medicinal use of the plants, not oriental ceremonial tea drinking.

There is evidence of the consumption of acorns from Quercus species in the Iberian Peninsula from prehistory through the 20th century up until the 1960s. Acorns were used primarily for human consumption, mainly during food shortages. The high abundance and even distribution of Quercus tree species made it possible for acorn consumption to be widespread across the Iberian Peninsula. The favored species was the holm oak (Quercus ilex subsp. ballota), because a large part of its harvest consists of sweet acorns, while in other species the acorns are almost always bitter. People developed a substantial knowledge base underpinning a great variety of uses of acorns, from eating them directly from the tree to preparation with very simple treatments, such as drying, roasting, or boiling. By manipulating levels of bitterness in a number of species, cooks were able to prepare dishes that ranged from salty to sweet.

Based on interviews with knowledgeable people and a review of ethnobotanical papers, this article describes the forms of consumption, the processed products, and the other uses of acorns of the species of the genus Quercus in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula. We also suggest why acorns lost their prominence in the late 1960s. At present, the main use of the acorn is as food for Iberian black pigs to obtain quality sausages. In addition, new products such as acorn liquor, caramels, and other items have recently appeared, marketed as distinctive products on a small scale.

We studied the cultural significance of wild edible
plants for Eastern European migrants who settled in rural subtropical areas of South America. In 50 interviews with Polish migrants and their descendants in northernMisiones, Argentina, we recorded the use of 41 botanical species and two mushroom taxa. Different cultural significance indices were applied and sociodemographic factors such as gender, age and origin were addressed. Out of the ten most salient species, nine were fruits (Eugenia uniflora, Eugenia involucrata, Rollinia salicifolia, Campomanesia xanthocarpa, Syagrus romanzoffiana, Allophylus edulis, Plinia peruviana, Plinia rivularis, Eugenia pyriformis) and only one was a green vegetable (Hypochaeris chillensis). None of our informants reported famine foods, recreational teas or condiments. Men mentioned more wild edible species than women due to their more extensive knowledge of the forest plants growing further from settlements.