Economic Botany最新文献

Maize is an important crop for food security and livelihood improvement in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. Maize varieties that enable farmers to increase their productivity and profitability, for example, can help them achieve these development outcomes. Contextual factors shape women’s and men’s preferences for specific maize traits and varieties, thus influencing varietal uptake and the contribution varieties make towards securing people’s livelihoods. Understanding contextual factors is paramount to pursuing gender equal outcomes within research-based maize breeding. We review literature on the demand for and access to improved maize varieties in Nigeria by using a framework that helps breeding programs become more gender-responsive and, thereby, enhance their impact via increased uptake. Findings show that attention towards the role of social norms in shaping the contexts where women and men maize farmers negotiate production-related decisions, form trait preferences, and access improved maize varieties has been limited within breeding programs, while ethnobotanical approaches are absent. To boost gender equal outcomes, maize breeding programs should identify the reasons motivating women’s and men’s varietal preferences and their different capacities to access improved varieties with the suited characteristics. To pursue this objective, gender-based Indigenous knowledge should be integrated since the first stages of varietal development.

Both human and non-human animals utilize tree bark as a food resource or for medicinal purposes. The preferences of animals can be explained by the nutritional quality of the bark, chemical composition, and ease with which the animals can remove the bark. Humans also exhibit preferences when selecting resources, and factors such as perceived efficacy, species versatility, and bark morphology may favor their use. In this study, we investigated whether the selection of medicinal plants in the Caatinga is based on the anatomical characteristics of the stem bark. To investigate this phenomenon, we tested the hypothesis that more versatile medicinal plants have bark structures that influence their removal. We studied the stem bark anatomy of 20 woody medicinal plants, ten with higher versatility and ten with lower versatility. We observed that the anatomical features of the bark did not predict versatility. Therefore, human selection for these species may be associated with other factors that people consider important.

Wild edible plants are important for the livelihoods of both rural and urban people in West Africa, but little is known about their trade networks. This study identifies, quantifies, and characterizes the local trade of wild edible plants in northern Guinea-Bissau to better understand the linkages between wild edible plants, local markets, and livelihoods, and to evaluate the sector’s ecological and economic sustainability. Interviews with 331 market vendors in the capital Bissau and in five sub-regional urban markets revealed that 19 products from 12 species were traded, with an estimated annual retail value of at least 707,000 USD for a volume of 354 metric tons (tonnes). These products are mainly harvested from the country’s woodlands by female vendors in sub-regional markets and are primarily traded to Bissau or neighboring countries. However, increasing demand and persisting deforestation for cashew plantations coupled with a lack of management strategies raise concerns about the long-term availability of certain wild edible plants. The study’s findings are also discussed in terms of their implications on local livelihoods, particularly for rural women who rely on the trade of wild products for income and as a social safety net. We highlight the need to secure women’s roles and enhance their collective power in added value chains.

As a field of study, ethnobotany is known for its interdisciplinary nature, drawing from a range of subjects, such as botany, anthropology, chemistry, ecology, and others. Though ethnobotany is broad and diverse, it does—on occasion—fall short when examining specific theoretical orientations and their applications within the discipline. In addition to this, there are many other forms of theoretical orientation—especially from the social sciences—that may hold great value for ethnobotany; some of these hold extra promise as a result of their inherent connection to themes of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) that have become increasingly acknowledged for their importance in academia in recent years. One such theoretical orientation is queer theory. The following paper provides a brief historical and epistemological overview of queer theory, and proposes a need for the development and practice of queer ethnobotany. Not only does queer theory stand to make ethnobotany a more diverse and accepting field, but it also has the potential to contribute to expanding upon the theoretical toolkit ethnobotanists may draw on in the classroom, the field, and beyond.

In the literature of the last century, there was the recurrent claim that an orchid called amatzauhtli was used as an adhesive in the manufacture and repair of indigenous Mexican handmade paper or amate—an attestation some scholars still repeat even today. Here, we describe the present use of the orchid Cyrtopodium macrobulbon in the final step of amate papermaking in the village of San Pablito, Puebla. After amate sheets are dried on and subsequently peeled from wooden boards, the pseudobulbs of the orchid are cut and used as an adhesive to patch over any holes or other imperfections that remain on the paper. Cyrtopodium macrobulbon is locally called küiä by Otomí papermakers, which they translate to Spanish as “pegamento” (glue). We also suggest that the amatzauhtli described in the sixteenth century by Hernández—widely reported as Epidendrum pastoris—actually refers to a very different species, Trichocentrum pachyphyllum, and we discuss the putative use of this and other orchids in pre-Hispanic amate making.