An ethnobotanical study of wild edible plants used by the Tibetan in the Rongjia river valley, Tibet, China

Abstract

Background Wild edible plants (It is abbreviated as WEPs below) play a crucial role in communities with limited communication with the outside world, where unstable factors like poor food supply and insufficient access to timely nutritional supplementation are common, such as the Himalaya region. To document the traditional WEPs knowledge and explore the significance of WEPs for communities with minimal global economic exchange, an ethnobotanical study was conducted in Rongjia Town which lies in a narrow valley near Mount Everest, Tibet, China. Methods This ethnobotanical study was conducted in three villages in Rongjia river valley between August 2021 to June 2023. Semi-structured interviews and participatory observations were used to collect the WEPs and related knowledge. The field works were performed with the assistance of local guides. We collected voucher specimens for each documented plant species for taxonomic identification. In this study, we use relative frequency of citation (RFC) to evaluate the comprehensive utilization value of WEPs. Results We interviewed 161 informants who provided us with 2499 use reports. In total, we collected 50 WEPs belonging to 28 families and 42 genera used by Tibetan people in Rongjia river valley. The WEPs are used as vegetable, fruit, seasoning, healthcare food, substitute grain and beverage. Among them, wild vegetable is the most commonly used categories, followed by wild fruit. And leaf is the most commonly consumed parts. The top three important WEPs are Rosa sericea f. glandulosa, Zanthoxylum bungeanum and Urtica hyperborea. Other than that, we also documented the current use situation of WEPs. The results shows that while some plants that were once important substitute grains are no longer used, these plants remain vivid in the memories of older people. Conclusions WEPs provided wild vegetable, fruit, seasoning, healthcare food, and ubstitute grain for Tibetan people in Rongjia river valley. And some WEPs become a important cultural carrier of older people, which can help to understand the relation of plant and local people in the past. In addition, WEPs can still increase resilience for local people lived in remote area when they face sudden destabilizing events in the future. Therefore, we suggest that future studies should focus more on WEPs in communities with limited communication with the world in order to improve their resilience.