Ethnobotanical Indicators

Ethnobotanical Indicators for Crop and Tree Diversity Ethnobotany Human aspects

Species has an important role in the local food culture

Several names for varieties of the same species

Folklore associated with species, ceremonial and ritual uses

Knowledge about the species is well distributed across the different sectors of the community and transmitted across generations.

Multiple uses of the same species

For example, as staple, vegetable, condiment, medicine, beverage, non-food uses

Different cultivars (or farmers' varieties) preferred for distinct uses

Different parts of the plant are used for distinctive foods and non-food uses (e.g. for taro: corm, cormel, stolon, stalk, leaf, flower).

Species is planted in diverse environments and microenvironments

Within an ecozone, farmers plant it under different conditions—microenvironments: field, paddy, swidden, terrace, field margin, along watercourses, home gardens, inter-cropped fields, orchards

Species is found across a wide range of ecozones and in marginal areas, even in places where one would not expect it

The species can occupy both major and secondary roles within local farming systems.

Local germplasm systems and germplasm exchange exists within and between communities

Diverse cultural communities maintain the species within their local taxonomic and germplasm systems;

There is exchange across cultural communities and across growing environments

Farmers have distinct criteria for selecting planting material from their own harvest or from outside their farm community.

Top Ethnobotany Human aspects