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Traditional Plant Knowledge in the White Carpathians: Ethnobotany of Wild Food Plants and Crop Wild Relatives in the Czech Republic

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Abstract

This ethnobotanical study documents wild food plant use in the White Carpathians in the Czech Republic, a bio-culturally preserved mountain range adjacent to the border with Slovakia. Sixty informants from 25 villages were interviewed, and 78 species of wild plant from 30 botanical families were recorded. Crop wild relatives were of high cultural importance, demonstrating their unambiguous role in the traditional food system. Based on cross-cultural comparisons, the highest degree of similarity for species, genera, and uses was found with Ukrainians living in Romania. The greatest number of species was collected in anthropogenic environments; however, species with higher cultural importance occur in forests and meadows. The consumption of Impatiens parviflora seeds, Sambucus nigra green flower buds, and the sucking of Ajuga reptans nectar are novel findings for European ethnobotany. The results reinforce the idea that operating through social memory biocultural refugia safeguard important reservoirs of traditional ecological knowledge.

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Notes

  1. The data from the unpublished theses of the latter two scholars were merged as they derived from the same study area.

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Acknowledgments

First and foremost, we would like to thank the custodians of local bio-cultural heritage, who provided invaluable, but disappearing traditional knowledge. For taxonomical verification, discussion and interest in the dissemination of documented knowledge through the regional ecological journal, we are grateful to Jan Wiliem Jongepier (ZO ČSOP Bílé Karpaty). This research was financially supported by the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague (IGA, Project No. 20165011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Sciences and Agroforestry, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, 16521, Prague 6-Suchdol, Czech Republic

    Lukas Pawera & Zbynek Polesny

  2. Department of Botany, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Rzeszów, ul. Pigonia 1, 35310, Rzeszów, Poland

    Łukasz Łuczaj

  3. University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele 9, 12060, Bra CN, Italy

    Andrea Pieroni

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  1. Lukas Pawera
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  2. Łukasz Łuczaj
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  4. Zbynek Polesny
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Correspondence to Zbynek Polesny.

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Pawera, L., Łuczaj, Ł., Pieroni, A. et al. Traditional Plant Knowledge in the White Carpathians: Ethnobotany of Wild Food Plants and Crop Wild Relatives in the Czech Republic. Hum Ecol 45, 655–671 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9938-x

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