Forty plant species and groups of related species were identified as potential food sources in the alpine tundra and subalpine forest of the Colorado Front Range. Emergence, flowering, and ripening schedules were monitored from 1994 to 2004, a period that included years with marked differences in precipitation, growing-season temperature, and snowbank­meltout dates. Late-lying snow is a critical limiting factor in the high-mountain environment, delaying the emergence of edible greens and the blooming of root-food species by as much as 2½ to 3 months in extreme years. Fruit and seed production are unreliable at high altitude because favorable moisture and temperature conditions rarely exist at all stages in the developmental process. Ethnographic data from arctic and subpolar regions with ET (effective temperature) values similar to those of the study area suggest that plant foods comprised less than 20% of the high-altitude summer diets of Front Range hunter-gatherers. Percentages would have been lower during cold, snowy intervals such as the Little Ice Age. Visitors to the alpine region, however, spent much of the year in warmer environments. On an annual basis they were not plant-food deprived.

The Eastern Tukanoan of the Vaupés River region along the Colombian-Brazilian border have long used the palm Iriartea deltoidea as a durable building material. A recent study examining the linguistic roots of the local names of various palm species reveals that, in at least five languages of the Eastern Tukanoan, the contemporary name for Iriartea deltoidea suggests that it was also once a source of starch, a use not yet recorded for this species. Considering its demographic and structural characteristics, harvest of Iriartea deltoidea for starch would not be suitable for sedentary societies. We present a hypothesis that contemporary names for this palm are remnants of words from a time when the ancestors of the Eastern Tukanoan were hunter-gatherers and exploited this source of starch.

We review 34 quantitative studies that have measured individual-level variations in ethnobotanical knowledge, analyzing how those studies have conceptualized and operationalized ethnobotanical knowledge. We found that this type of research is recent but growing, and is concentrated in indigenous peoples of developing countries. We also found that studies differ on how they conceptualize and measure individual ethnobotanical knowledge. As it is the case in other interdisciplinary research, the lack of conceptual consistency and comparable data limit the inferences that can be drawn from empirical analyses of ethnobotanical knowledge. Future research should 1) validate the consistency of measures of individual ethnobotanical knowledge; 2) analyze the reliability of data generated by the different methods developed so far; and 3) address the relationship between the various dimensions of ethnobotanical knowledge. Studies of individual ethnobotanical knowledge have the potential to contribute to a systematic understanding of humanity's most widespread and ancient form of knowledge.

The European yew tree (Taxus baccata L.) has been utilized by humans for tens of thousands of years. The Irish saw the yew as a symbol of life and death, used the wood for religious implements, symbolized it in their alphabet, formed laws and stringent fines for harming the trees, and integrated its cultural significance into their lyric prose. There is contradiction in forest history literature as to the extent of this tree on the Holocene landscape, but toponymy, the ancient texts and pollen analysis suggest that yew was historically abundant. Pollen data suggest not only that the tree was abundant in Ireland, but also that it increased during a time of regional woodland decline. The tree became relatively rare on the natural landscape within the last 800 years and religious reverence has waned, but a revived interest in Celtic spirituality and movements by Heritage Council Ireland could serve to prevent further decline.

We analyze and compare plant knowledge and uses of medicinal and edible plants of two rural communities located in different phytogeographic regions. We hypothesize that there are differences in the number of edible and medicinal plants that people know and use between these communities because of environmental constraints. In addition, because of cultural erosion, we expect to find (a) a higher number of plants that people know as useful in comparison with the number of plants they actually use, and (b) a decrease in the number of useful plants cited when comparing male/female and younger/older categories. Results show a higher range of knowledge of medicinal plants than edible plants, and medicinal use included mainly those used to treat digestive problems. Based on statistical analyses, we present comparisons between the communities, age groups, and genders, and discuss how differences in these regions (e.g., geographic, ecological, cultural, etc.) may explain of the variation in the knowledge on wild useful plants between the communities.

Researchers have debated on the extent of universality of classification systems in ethnobiology, with little attention to the fundamental mechanisms that underpin aboriginal taxonomy. In a mechanistic approach we challenge previous notions that aboriginal taxonomy is based predominantly on one particular mechanism (e.g., universal taxonomy, utilitarian, morphological, ecological). We hypothesize that traditional knowledge has evolved to include multifarious mechanisms, which provide a robust systematic classification and diverse taxonomy for plants. Quantitative classification techniques using Bray-Curtis average linkage and Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) were employed to classify 50 plant species using both traditional aboriginal and Linnaean characters. Our research indicates that the Irulas of Tamil Nadu are an example of a traditional culture that uses three primary taxonomic mechanisms to identify plants; morphology, ecology and experience (“utility” was a secondary mechanism). Our ordination analysis suggests that the Irulas classification is more robust than the Linnaean taxonomy for the same group of plants.

Different varieties of Zea mays L. (Poaceae) recovered from Punta de la Peña 4 and Punta de la Peña 9 archaeological sites were studied. These sites are situated in the vicinity of Antofagasta de la Sierra, Catamarca, Argentina. C¹⁴ dates obtained span 1970 ± 50 and 530 ± 50 BP, which correspond to the Late Holocene. The hypothesis proposes the intensive use of plant species in the studied archaeological sites as a preparation for the next stage, Late Holocene, when horticulture and herding were incorporated into hunter-gatherer practices in the Puna ecozone. Based on this data, the progress of the plant domestication process in the Southern Argentinean Puna is re-evaluated.