Ethnobotany, Traditional Knowledge, and Diversity of Wild Edible Plants and Fungi: A Case Study in the Bandipora District of Kashmir Himalaya, India

ABSTRACT

This study explored the diversity of traditional knowledge, collected data on utilization, and identified and analyzed the wild edible plants and fungi of Kashmir Himalaya (India). Information was collected by interviews with 113 individuals during 2012–2014 from nine rural and mountainous areas. Data were classified as cooked vegetables, salads, spices, chutneys, herbal teas, home-made alcoholic drinks, soups, raw fruits, and underground snacks. Information was analyzed using use reports (UR), use values (UV), informant consensus (F_ic), fidelity level (FL), and cultural importance index (CI) metrics. In total, 111 phytotaxa, distributed into 87 genera and 43 families, were identified as local edible resources. Overall, 94.25% of angiosperms, 3.45% gymnosperms, and 2.30% of cryptogams were documented as being used traditionally. Several taxa were highly cited (Amaranthus caudatus, Angelica archangelica, Asparagus racemosus, Berberis lycium, Fragaria vesca, Hippophae rhamnoides, Oxyria digyna, Juglans regia). Frequently used parts were young leaves (19.82%), fruits (15.32%), young twigs (9.01%), roots (8.11%), and tubers (6.31%). The most usage was mentioned for leafy vegetables (27.93%), followed by raw fruits (22.52%), herbal teas (14.41%), salads (9.91%), alcoholic drinks (6.31%), and snacks (4.50%). The high fidelity scores and informant consensus factors suggest that ethnobotanical knowledge could potentially guide the search for developing new nutraceutical products in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural importance index
• fidelity level
• informant consensus factor

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Dr. Ram A. Vishwakarma, Director, CSIR—Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, for facilities and encouragement. We are also thankful to the local people for their assistance in the field and for sharing their indigenous knowledge.

Funding

This work is supported by CSIR, Government of India, under 12^th Five Year Plan project “Bioprospection of plant resources and other natural products (BSC-0106)” and IIIM in-house MLP 1007. This article represents institutional communication number IIIM/1906/2016.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by CSIR, Government of India, under 12^th Five Year Plan project “Bioprospection of plant resources and other natural products (BSC-0106)” and IIIM in-house MLP 1007. This article represents institutional communication number IIIM/1906/2016.

Notes on contributors

Bikarma Singh

The first author, Dr Bikarma Singh, designed this whole study, carried out field work, performed ethnobotanical investigation, maintained records of all voucher samples, carried out species identification and species authentication work, analyzed the documented data, prepared the draft of this manuscript, and edited the final version. Phalisteen Sultan contributed to field survey and ethnobotanical data collection. Yashbir Singh Bedi, Sumeet Gairola, and Qazi Parvaiz Hassan are project team members, and provided the inputs for the study.

Phalisteen Sultan

The first author, Dr Bikarma Singh, designed this whole study, carried out field work, performed ethnobotanical investigation, maintained records of all voucher samples, carried out species identification and species authentication work, analyzed the documented data, prepared the draft of this manuscript, and edited the final version. Phalisteen Sultan contributed to field survey and ethnobotanical data collection. Yashbir Singh Bedi, Sumeet Gairola, and Qazi Parvaiz Hassan are project team members, and provided the inputs for the study.

Qazi Parvaiz Hassan

The first author, Dr Bikarma Singh, designed this whole study, carried out field work, performed ethnobotanical investigation, maintained records of all voucher samples, carried out species identification and species authentication work, analyzed the documented data, prepared the draft of this manuscript, and edited the final version. Phalisteen Sultan contributed to field survey and ethnobotanical data collection. Yashbir Singh Bedi, Sumeet Gairola, and Qazi Parvaiz Hassan are project team members, and provided the inputs for the study.

Sumeet Gairola

The first author, Dr Bikarma Singh, designed this whole study, carried out field work, performed ethnobotanical investigation, maintained records of all voucher samples, carried out species identification and species authentication work, analyzed the documented data, prepared the draft of this manuscript, and edited the final version. Phalisteen Sultan contributed to field survey and ethnobotanical data collection. Yashbir Singh Bedi, Sumeet Gairola, and Qazi Parvaiz Hassan are project team members, and provided the inputs for the study.

Yashbir Singh Bedi

The first author, Dr Bikarma Singh, designed this whole study, carried out field work, performed ethnobotanical investigation, maintained records of all voucher samples, carried out species identification and species authentication work, analyzed the documented data, prepared the draft of this manuscript, and edited the final version. Phalisteen Sultan contributed to field survey and ethnobotanical data collection. Yashbir Singh Bedi, Sumeet Gairola, and Qazi Parvaiz Hassan are project team members, and provided the inputs for the study.