Wild edible plant species found in Ağrı are nutritionally and economically relevant. Plants are collected by the villagers and brought to the market for sale in the spring. Interest in these plants responds to the increasing demand for organic and natural food. In this study, 350 in-depth face-to-face interviews with villagers about the edible plants used in Ağrı (7 districts, 35 villages) were conducted in the region from April 2016 to October 2017. The species, parts used and their consumption and preservation techniques were analyzed and documented. Some of the wild edible plant species are consumed cured or canned, raw or cooked, dried, and some are frozen. The collected 100 wild edible species belong to 25 different plant families. Species are consumed as vegetables (91), spices (19), beverages (16), subterranean parts (5), fruits (3), seeds (3) and exudates (2). The most important species according to their cultural importance were: Amaranthus retroflexus, Beta trigyna, Gundelia tournefortii, Mentha longifolia, Polygonum persicaria, Rumex scutatus, Tragopogon porrifolius subsp. longirostris, and Urtica dioica. Leaves and young shoots were the most frequently used parts. Our study shows that wild edible plants are still well known and used by the local people of Ağrı as a food source. The documented data on these plants herein could be used as baseline information for further investigations on nutritional contents, as they could have the potential to become valuable nutrition sources.

This study was carried out to specify the plant species consumed as vegetables by local people living in districts and villages of Kars province in order to determine our cultural richness based on the usage types of these species by aiming to hand down the next generations in 2015-2016. It was determined that 87 taxa belonging to 19 families are used as vegetables in the research area. It was found that determined plant species belong to Asteracea, Lamiaceae, Polyogonocea and Apiaceae families. While it was determined that parts of these plants such as root, stem, shoot, flower, branch, leaf, seed and tuber were consumed as vegetables, however, it was also revealed that the habit of consuming may be differed from region to region. These plants are consumed as fresh, dried, in brine, frozen, processed by pickles or preserved in the form of canned food. Moreover, it was ascertained that they are consumed as raw (salad), food, wrap, soup, pastry, pickles, jams and some of them as spices for taste and smell, and additionally as tea for therapeutic purposes. All plants were recorded by their local names, locations, parts with their usage patterns. Herbarium was prepared and later identified by Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University. Herbarium specimens and seed samples were sent to Seed Gene Bank of Turkey (Ankara) and the National Seed Gene Bank (Menemen/İzmir) by aim of conservation.

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