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Few studies in Colombia have focused on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) changes and assessed whether they signified TEK erosion or explored what drives changes. In this study, we researched three Afro-descendant communities’ food plant TEK in the Colombian Caribbean coast. Methods used included a plant recognition exercise undertaken with three generations in families. Respondents were asked how they used a plant, the last time of use, and the reasons for non-consumption (NC) or consumption several years previously (CSYP). Different patterns of recognition and use emerged. Of the 98 species, 28 did not show evidence of intergenerational change. For certain cultivated species, there were marked differences between the percentage of grandparents and children reporting current consumption. Finally, 33 species had low recognition rates by the youngest generation and high levels of NC or CSYP. By analyzing the reasons given for NC or CSYP and the perceptions of participants in interviews and focus groups, we identified TEK erosion for various species (e.g., Anacardium excelsum, Elaeis oleifera, Solanum allophyllum, and Talinum triangulare). However, high NC levels did not always signify declining knowledge or use. Additionally, there appeared to be different dynamics of TEK change in the study sites. En Colombia pocos estudios se han enfocado en los cambios en el conocimiento ecologico ancestral (CEA) para determinar si se evidenciaba erosion del CEA o han explorado cuales factores impulsan los cambios. En este estudio, investigamos el CEA sobre plantas alimenticias de comunidades Afrodescendientes en tres localidades en la costa Caribe colombiana. Se utilizo un ejercicio de reconocimiento de plantas, desarrollado con tres generaciones en familias. Se pregunto a los entrevistados como utilizaban una planta, la ultima fecha de uso y las razones de no consumo (NC) o consumo hace varios anos (CHVA). Desde los datos surgieron diversos patrones de reconocimiento y uso. De las 98 plantas, 28 no mostraron evidencia de cambios intergeneracionales. Para algunas especies cultivadas, habia diferencias marcadas entre el porcentaje de abuelos y de ninos que reportaban consumo actual. Finalmente, 33 especies obtuvieron niveles de reconocimiento muy bajos por la generacion mas joven y altos niveles de NC o CHVA. Analizando las razones por el NC o el CHVA y las percepciones de los participantes en entrevistas y en grupos focales, identificamos erosion del CEA en el caso de varias especies (p.ej. Anacardium excelsum, Elaeis oleifera, Solanum allophyllum y Talinum triangulare). Sin embargo, niveles altos de NC no siempre estaban indicando una reduccion del conocimiento y del uso. Al parecer habia diferentes dinamicas de cambio en el CEA en los sitios de la investigacion.

Ta Chorta: A Comparative Ethnobotanical-Linguistic Study of Wild Food Plants in a Graecanic Area in Calabria, Southern Italy. In the Mediterranean basin, with a manifold biocultural history, traditional knowledge is an important element of rural life. The use of food plants, for example, is a practice that has developed over generations and is part of the traditional knowledge system. However, for methodological reasons, the historical development of plant use is difficult to ascertain in cultures which rely on the oral transmission of knowledge. Here we discuss the antiquity of non-cultivated food plant use in the Graecanic area in Calabria, Southern Italy. We compare today’s gathered food plants in this ethnic Greek community with non-cultivated food plant use in modern and classical Greece using linguistic-historical methods. Fourteen cognates have been found, such as Portulaca oleracea (purslane), which is called andracla in the Graecanic area in Southern Italy and andrakla in Greece. The young leaves of purslane are used as salad in both areas. Plants with such cognates are likely to have been used in the study region as vegetables, salads, or condiments since the time Magna Graecia flourished in Southern Italy more than 2,000 years ago.

Ephedra sinica Stapf (commonly, Chinese ephedra) grows mainly in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and other regions of northern China. The stems of Chinese ephedra have been called the world's oldest medicine; other uses remain to be reported. Among the Mongolian people, in addition to medical applications, the fleshy bracts of the seed cones (or “fruit”) are traditionally used as food, fresh or dried, in several ways; for example, the fruit is used as a refined sugar, a cheese condiment, and a tea substitute. In this paper, we analyze the fruit's nutritional components: moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, carbohydrate, ash, pectin, vitamins, fatty acids, mineral elements, and amino acids. Ethnobotanical and nutritional component information may indicate that the plant has potential for development as a special food plant.

Ethnographic interviews using photographs of 10 traditional Vietnamese fruits and vegetables were used to compare the knowledge level and use of traditional food plants between Vietnamese in urban Bien Hoa, Vietnam, and in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. In both communities, there was a positive correlation between age and knowledge (as measured by correct identification, and number of food uses for the plants). Vietnamese immigrants in Hawai‘i listed more food uses than those in Vietnam due to adoption of multi ethnic foods found in Honolulu.

Lycianthes moziniana is an agrestic (weedy) perennial encouraged by traditional farmers for its edible, sweet-tasting fruits. This species is endemic to the Mexican highland plateau and Oaxaca where the ethnotaxonomic and ethnohistoric data reflect a long-standing relationship with human populations. Today, the fruits of this plant are used for domestic consumption, small-scale commercialization, and ceremonial purposes. To ensure the production of fruits, traditional farmers afford the plants a special management which has evolutionary repercussions. Recently, modern agricultural practices have placed this species in danger of extinction. Preliminary chemical analyses and yield data suggest thatL. moziniana is particularly well-suited for development as a “new” crop for Mexico. Lycianthes moziniana es una planta arvense auspiciada por agricultores tradicionales para aprovechar susfrutos comestibles de sabor duke. Esta especie es endemica al altiplano mexicano y Oaxaca donde la evidencia etnobotdnica y etnohistorica indica una larga interaction con poblaciones humanas. Hoy en dia, los frutos de esta planta estan utilizados para consumo domestico, comercializacion a pequena escala, y propositos ceremoniales Para asegurar la production de estos frutos, agricultores tradicionales proporcionan a las plantas un manejo especial el cual tiene repercusiones evolutivas. Ultimamente, prdcticas agricolas modernas han favorecido la elimination de esta y todas las demds arvenses, y han puesto L. moziniana en peligro de extincion. Andlisis quimicosproximales y datos de rendimiento sugieren que L. moziniana seria apta para consideration como un cultivo “nuevo.”

Data are presented on proximate analyses of the seeds and tuberous roots of Icacina oliviformis(Icacinaceae) from the Central African Republic. The seeds contain 80.7% nitrogen-free extract (NFE), 14.0% crude protein, and 0.5% crude fat (dry weight). The average moisture content of live seeds is 18.3%. The roots contain 84.5% NFE, 4.4% crude protein, and 1.6% crude fat (dry weight). The moisture content of the fresh root is ca. 59%. These results are comparable to those reported for commonly cultivated crops in the study area. The amino acid profile of the seed protein is comparable to that of a protein of moderately high quality, although digestibility was not tested. From a nutritional point of view, this species warrants consideration for integration into agroforestry schemes undertaken in areas where it is currently exploited.

Until recently the use of plants for the precontact cultures of the Northwest Coast has been weakly and sporadically documented. This has led to some misconceptions about the importance of food plants in the precontact diet. This paper documents the use of plants associated with food for the Kaigani Haida of southeast Alaska who were first contacted in 1774, giving the native terms for the plants, and methods of preparation and storage both in precontact and contemporary life. Evidence is offered which indicates that plants were of great importance to the societies of the Northwest Coast and that food plants were more important than has been recognized. A map shows the territory of the Kaigani Haida prior to Euro-American contact, old village sites and the modern village of Hydaburg. Women’s knowledge of plants, their native names, economic use, and method of preparation and storage are offered as evidence that food plants were significantly important to the precontact economy. Nutritional analyses of some of the berries and sprouts indicates that such foods were necessary in the diet in order to maintain healthy, viable populations.

Ricinodendron rautanenii provides an easily stored sweet-tasting fruit containing a nut whose seed is rich in fat, protein, and minerals. Its distribution is largely confined to the Zambezian phytogeographical region of Africa, centered on the nutrient- poor Kalahari sands of southeastern Angola and northeastern Namibia. There the estimates of annual nut production range from ca. 250 kg/ha to 800 kg/ ha. In this subhumid summer-rain climate this tree flowers in late spring and the fruits fall in autumn. A significant proportion of the nuts are still edible after having lain on the ground for a year. The nuts were traditionally a staple food for the subregion’s rural populations.

An even greater use of the tomato as a food plant than at present may be possible through the breeding of more productive varieties having higher nutritive value and vitamin-C content. Such varieties might be developed by incorporating in the cultigen, Lyco persicon esculentum, certain desirable genes found in closely related species. For this purpose further genetic studies are necessary, and the development of suitable plant-breeding methods.

Examples of two ways in which studies of corn's evolution may contribute to its breeding are given. First, the association of increased pollen grain size with increased ear length in nature indicates the necessity of maintaining this association during artificial selection for increased ear length. Second, by understanding the role of introgression (or flow of germplasm from corn's wild relatives, teosinte andTripsacum), we might be able to increase our pool of germplasm and be able to control combining ability, as used in hybrid corn breeding. The use of experimentally controlled introgression obtained directly from teosinte andTripsacum to further improve corn should make it possible to increase the yield and utility of this basic food plant to higher levels than ever would have been attained otherwise.

After some 7,000 years of changes during domestication, the ear of corn may now reach a higher level of utility to man by acquiring a glumeless cob. From meager beginnings as an unpromising food plant, corn has already evolved an ear with so many advantages for harvesting, storage and shelling that it is now the basic food plant of this hemisphere. The ear of wild corn, as reconstructed from its prehistoric remaiins from Tehuacan Mexico (Mangelsdorf et al. 1964), was a tiny, slender spike divided into male (staminate) and female (pistillate) regions, and its few kernels were partly enclosed by long chaff (glumes) around individual kernels, as well as partly enclosed by a few husks arising on the shank below. Then, following domestication, a separation of the sexes into two different inflorescences borne on different parts of the plant permitted divergence into the familiar tassel and ear. When the tassel, which now terminates the main stalk, became entirely male, its structure became that of a lax plume with waving branches adapted for shedding pollen into the wind. Meanwhile, an all-female ear developed at the tip of the lateral branch, and its axis became a massive cob beset with hundreds of large, tightly packed kernels. The husks increased in length and number as they formed an enclosure which protected the grain from the feeding of birds. Thus, the ear glumes became obsolete for protective purposes. As with other structures which have lost their original function, the ear glumes became somewhat reduced. This, in turn, allowed the evolution of a more efficient type of cob because of less competition between the grain and glumes for energy (Mangelsdorf and Reeves 1959).

Among the less known domesticated plants of Peru, the "maca" (Lepidium meyenii Walp.) occupies a special position. It was widely used during the colonial and precolonial periods. Vfasquez de Espinoza (13), who visited Peru around 1598, and Cobo (2), from 1603-1629, give descriptions of the plant and its uses. H. Ruiz (9), of the Royal Spanish Botanical Expedition in 1777-1778, found it in cultivation close to Lake Junin and gives a short note on its utilization. However, no mention is found in Oviedo, Garcilaso and other early chroniclers. So far as is known, it does not appear represented in the ancient Peruvian pottery so rich in representations of cultivated plants. In modern works, it is not mentioned in ethnobotanical publications such as Cook (3), Yacovleff and Herrera (15), Towle (11) and Horkheimer (6). Slight mentions are found in Vavilov (12), Bukasov (1), Hawkes (5) and Middendorf (7)2. Recently in Peru, Pulgar Vidal (8) and Chaeon (4) have been interested in its medicinal properties. As maca is grown in an area that is not frequently visited by scientific travellers, and as its culture is decreasing, it is not surprising that the plant is not mentioned even in special works on the food plants of Peru. Maca culture is concentrated in the high cordilleras of central Peru, particularly in the Departments of Pasco and Junin, between 3,500-4,000 m. At present, commercial production, for food or medicine purposes, is centered in two areas: first, the mountains surrounding Lake Junin, where macas are

Cultivated food plant stocks were brought to Hawaii by the immigrating Polynesians and composed most of their basic diet. Extensive use, however, was made of the highly endemic (95%' for flowering plants and 67% for ferns) flora. The Hawaiian was both a proficient agriculturist and naturalist. Nearly all of the vascular plant genera were given vernacular names, as well as many species and varieties.

Corn (Zea mays L.) has been recognized as the basic food plant of all the more advanced New World cultures, such as those of the Inca, Aztec, Maya and Pueblo Indians, as well as of our own. The developinent of these cultures was permitted not only by corn's great productivity and its adaptability to a wide range of growing conditions but also from an adaptation in structure which facilitates its utilization by man. Although the grain-bearing axis of the other cereals is like that of corn in having acquired the essential non-shattering characteristic, only corn has evolved the additional advantages of the familiar cob with its over-all enclosure of husks. The co1 is a structure convenient for harvesting, storage and shelling by hand, as well as for chewing-off the sweet immature grain from roasting ears. Although the structure of the modern corn plant is well known, the extinction of wild corn has created a mystery as to how its form becamue a function of serving man (Mangelsdorf et al, 1964). Early in domestication, the tassel, an inflorescence which terminates the main stalk, became entirely male, and its structure became that of a lax plume whose waving branches shed their pollen into the wind. The ear, which terminates the lateral branches, became entirely female, and its structure became highly specialized to the benefaction of man. Thereby

Japan is a country very poor in natural resources, as we are compelled to believe. We are convinced this is true with respect to mineral resources, but our plant and animal resources can be strengthened by the domestication of foreign introductions. The task of developing and increasing our biological resources should be a challenge to our agronomists and biologists, since we will have to feed in this tiny country 110,000,000 people by the year 2,000.

In June of 1962, it was my pleasure to present at the Third Annual Meeting of The Society for Economic Botany a plan for an unusual approach to the search for useful plants (1). It consisted of making greater use of major herbaria by extracting from them all unpublished label data which might be potentially valuable to man from the standpoint of health and medicine. I would like to report today on the realization of this plan at one major institution and on what appears to be a large windfall of possible food plants among our findings. The search to which I refer was carried out through the sponsorship of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University and consisted of a sheet by sheet examination of the estimated 2,500,000 specimens of flowering plants in the combined collections of the Arnold Arboretum and Gray Herbarium of that University.3 Two persons trained in herbarium techniques and working less than full time were able to complete the search in five years. The work was supported in turn by Smith, Kline & French Laboratories; the National Institute of Mental Health; and the Eli Lilly Research Laboratories. The information sought and recorded covered a broad range of data, including not only specific folk or native remedies but any notes allowing possible physiological activity. The search was undertaken in the belief that herbaria represent rich and untapped reservoirs of such information, which, in some instances, might provide the only remaining clews to medical materials of peoples the cultures of which already have been absorbed by civilization. We were eager also to recognize species which may not have been used by