An Ethnobotany Survey of Wild Plants Used by the Tibetan People of the Yadong River Valley, Tibet, China

Abstract

IntroductionPlant resources gathered from the wild are important sources of livelihood needs, especially for the low-income populations living living in remote areas, who rely on these plants for food, fuelwood, medicine and building materials. Yadong County is a valley on the border of the three countries in southern Tibet. Yadong is rich in biodiversity and culture, but ethnobotanical knowledge has not been systematically studied. The purpose of this research is: to document the ethnobotanical knowledge of the Tibetans in Yadong County.MethodsEthnobotanical data were documented through free listing, key informant interviews, and semistructured interviews during field work. The CI (cultural importance index) and FIC (informant consensus factor index) were used as quantitative indices.Results163 informants (46 women and 117 men) were interviewed. In total, 3031 use reports and 121 plant species belonging to 52 families and 91 genera were included. Then these use reports were classified into 20 categories belonging to the nine major categories. The utilization categories that contained the most plant species were food, followed by economic, medicine, animal food, social uses, other uses, environmental uses, materials and fuels. Among the economic plants, thirty-two kinds of medicinal plants are traditionally used in the local region for sale. The plants with high CI were Fritillaria cirrhosa, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, Betula utilis, Rheum nobile, Urtica hyperborean.ConclusionThis research demonstrates the diversity of types and functions of the Yadong Tibetan’s traditional plant knowledge. Knowledge of edible and medicinal plants in this area is more prominent, reflecting the ability to cope with the lack of fruits and vegetables and basic family medical care. There were exchanges between the traditional plant culture of the study area and the surroundings. With the socioeconomic development, the commercial value of medicinal plants has been developed, and locals are also seeking a path of sustainable development to cope with excessive consumption of plant resources.

Ethnoscience-Based Module: Biodiversity Materials in Lembak Tribe

“…Around 30.000 plant species are estimated to live in Indonesia's wet tropical forests, such as vines, shrubs, herbs, shrubs, and trees. Interestingly, most of these plants can be used as medicinal ingredients (Guo et al, 2022). People in Indonesia have used them as herbal or traditional medicine for a long time and continue to grow until now.…”