Wild and semi-domesticated food plant consumption in seven circum-Mediterranean areas.
The use of local Mediterranean food plants is at the brink of disappearance. Even though there is relatively abundant information on inventories of wild edible taxa, there is also a crucial need to understand how these plants are consumed and when and how these consumption phenomena change over time and place around the Mediterranean. Additionally, it is important to study such knowledge systems and find innovative ways of infusing them to the future Mediterranean generations. During the years 2003-2006 a circum-Mediterranean ethnobotanical field survey for wild food plants was conducted in selected study sites in seven Mediterranean areas (European Union-funded RUBIA Project). Structured and semi-structured questionnaires have been administered to indigenous people and 294 wild food plant taxa were documented in the survey. A comparative analysis of the data was undertaken showing that the quantity and quality of traditional knowledge varies among the several study areas and is closely related to the traditions, environment and cultural heritage of each country. More similarities of wild edible popular use were revealed between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Mediterranean.
Hadjichambis
Andreas Ch
ACh
Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus. a.chadjihambi@cytanet.com.cy
Paraskeva-Hadjichambi
Demetra
D
Della
Athena
A
Giusti
Maria Elena
ME
De Pasquale
Caterina
C
Lenzarini
Cinzia
C
Censorii
Elena
E
Gonzales-Tejero
Maria Reyes
MR
Sanchez-Rojas
Cristina Patricia
CP
Ramiro-Gutierrez
Jose M
JM
Skoula
Melpomeni
M
Johnson
Chris
C
Sarpaki
Anaya
A
Hmamouchi
Mohamed
M
Jorhi
Said
S
El-Demerdash
Mohamed
M
El-Zayat
Mustafa
M
Pieroni
Andrea
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044822:Biodiversity; D004034:Diet Surveys; D038441:Diet, Mediterranean; D019448:Ethnobotany / Q000379:methods; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010945:Plants, Edible