Diversity of wild edible plants traditionally used by the Galo tribe of Indian Eastern Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

Wild edible plants are found very useful in the fulfilment of food and nutritional requirements. Because of the availibity and cultural preference, the consumption of these plants among the tribes is high. To find out the diversity, utilisation pattern and sociocultural importance of the wild plants, a study was conducted in the state of Arunachal Pradesh selecting the Galo tribe, and accordingly the wild edible plants consumed are documented here. Data were collected through extensive field surveys and interviews with the community in the selected 12 villages in Upper Subansiri and West Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Overall, 125 wild edible plant species under 99 genera and 54 families are reported. These species are consumed mostly as leafy vegetables, fruits, medicine, spices and condiments and as a substitute to food grains. The Urticaceae with ten species is the most utilised family followed by Asteraceae, Moraceae and Lamiaceae with at least five species in each. Herbs with 47 species were found to be the most dominant growth form followed by trees with 44 species. Based on parts used leaves with 66 species were recorded to be the most used plant parts followed by fruits. The highest edibility index of 50 % was reported in Solanum americanum. The analysis of relative frequency of citation revealed that total 78 species exhibits more than 0.50 relative frequency of citation value with highest value in Pouzolzia hirta (0.95). It has been found that the wild plant resources play a vital role in the socio-economic aspects of the Galo tribe.

Wild edible vegetables of ethnic communities of Mizoram (Northeast India): an ethnobotanical study in thrust of marketing potential

“…Vis./ MZUBOT0267 H; Kawhtebel P; Uilusing Araliacea Tree Feb–April Flower bud Boiled/ Fried Construction LC Kar et al [ 29 ] 68 Sauromatum horsfieldii Miq./ MZUBOT0268 H, P; Telhawngnu Araceae Herb Aug–Dec Bulb Boiled/ Fried Fodder NE Kar et al [ 29 ] 69 Wendlandia budleioides Wall.ex Wight&Arn / MZUBOT0269 H; Ba-tling P; Bating Rubiaceae Tree Feb–April Flower bud Boiled/ Fried Fuelwood, fodder, construction NE Konsam et al [ 31 ] Kar et al [ 29 ] 70 Zanthoxylum rhetsa (Roxb).Dc/MZUBOT0270 H, P: Chingit Rutaceae Tree Aug–Dec Leaves /shoot Combined with other vegetables or fermented soya bean/ fried LC Konsam et al [ 31 ], Doni and Gajurel. [ 42 ]

Fig. 2 Life-form distributions of documented WEVs

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Diversity of wild edible plants and fungi consumed by semi-nomadic Gaddi and Sippi tribes in Doda district of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

“…These results are also in agreement with the findings for other tribes viz. Gujjar and Bakarwal tribes of Rajouri, JKUT (Rashid et al 2008;Dangwal et al 2014), Sheena tribe of Kashmir, JKUT (Singh and Bedi 2018), Garo tribe of Meghalaya, India (Singh et al 2012), Galo tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, India (Doni and Gajure 2020), and studies conducted in other parts the World (Liu et al 2018;Nanagulyan et al 2020;Al-Fatimi 2021;La Rosa et al 2021). In contrast to these findings, Midlands Province of Zimbabwe (Maroyi 2011), Teso-Karamoja region of Uganda use trees (Ojelel et al 2019), and Koya and Guttikoya tribes of Telangana (Rao et al 2021), whereas in south Ethiopia (Balemie and Kebebew 2006) shrub are used as main WEPs.…”

How Can India Leverage Its Botanic Gardens for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Wild Food Plant Resources through the Implementation of a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation?

“…The WFPs can contribute to ensuring food security of the people and towards the realization of global goals, also known as sustainable development goals [21]. India is home to many WFPs such as leafy vegetables, nutritious fruits, tubers, edible stems, and medicinal plants, including myco-foods such as mushrooms [11,12,[21][22][23][24][25]. So far, attention has been paid towards leveraging medicinal plants, but WFPs largely remain ignored because of the underestimation of their economic and nutritional importance and their contribution towards climate-resilient cultivation practices [26].…”