Traditional classification of plants

Summary

The object of this study was to investigate the extent to which rural people practise traditional systems of plant classification. Based on interviews with old people living in rural areas coupled with a study of the literature, it was established that among the Javanese in Central Java there is a system of classifying cultivated plants or agricultural crop plants. The resulting groups are not comparable with the taxa of plant taxonomy. The traditional system of classification makes use of binary names, consisting of the word pitpala meaning fruit or product (the harvested part of the plant) followed by a word which indicates one of the characteristics common to the whole group. Larger groups are given names in which the first part is the wordtaru meaning plants or trees. ThusTaru pala refers to all fruit-bearing trees. This traditional system is restricted to cultivated plants and does not apply to the whole of the plant kingdom.