Organizando os usos e funções dos vegetais: a etnobotânica auxiliando na prevenção e diminuição da cegueira botânica.

Abstract

The emergence of the human species inaugurated the uses of plants that are still perpetuated to this day, although their due importance is not recognized, often reaching plant blindness, a term created to define the difficulty of people to notice the plants in their environment and recognize its importance to life on earth. The aim of this research was to raise and gather some uses of vegetables by humans and some functions of these beings in the environment, which were scattered and unnoticed. The method consisted of a search in bibliographic sources, through which the most common categories of Ethnobotany were expanded with the creation and inclusion of categories from other Sciences, with the selection of at least one plant and a source that referred to this use or function of this new category. The current research has resulted in the organization of twenty nine categories of use and function, with potential for use in botany teaching. This attitude, together with integrated actions and strategies related to enchantment, affectivity and contextualization, may contribute to the prevention and treatment of plant blindness. In this sense, it is expected to assist in the valorization and conservation of the plants that almost all living beings depend for their living, including humam being, that act as do not.