Fig 10 - uploaded by José Blancas Vázquez
Content may be subject to copyright.
4 Specialized gathering with appreciation of variants. Quercus candicans is a oak tree ( a ) whose leaves are used to cook "tamales" on celebrations days ( b ). Collectors recognized two variants: "lisa". Leaves large, thin, smooth. Leaf underside glabrous and bright. The surface of the leaf is light green ( c ); and "cucharuda". Leaves thick, leathery, spoon-shaped. Undersides densely tomentose, beam darker color ( d ). The "lisa" variant is preferred to wrap tamales, since it can be handled better and confers a nicer fl avor. According to interviewees, the variety "cucharuda" is diffi cult to bend and confers bitter taste to "tamales"
Source publication
We analysed the diversity of forms in which human communities of the Tehuacan Valley manage their plant resource, as well as the motivations and factors influencing how such management forms are and how intensely held. We explored and identified ecological, sociocultural, economic and technological factors that influence how the management forms an...
Similar publications
Wild fruits are widely consumed in rural Himalayas and are potential source of various compounds and are also used in folk medicines. A study of wild fruits as eatable of Pabbar valley was carried out with the aim of documentation, identification and exploration of the ethnobotanical knowledge of local people. Total 33 plants species have been coll...
There is a great interest in the nutritional value of vegetables and fruits and how the habitat affects nutritive and biological properties. In vitro studies here reported were performed to evaluate the inhibitory activity of formulations from edible plant on pancreatic lipase. The aim of this study was also to evaluate the biovariability of L. com...
Citations
... The percentage of introduced edible species (13.3%) recorded for Querétaro is below than those found in several investigations. Blancas et al. (2016) 41% edible plant species for the Tehuacán Valley, Balcázar-Quiñones et al. (2020) in their study of the "quelites" fond in a Mexican State community, that 44% of the "quelites" consumed were introduced, including the turnip among the most important ones. Besides, some species seem widely adopted in the Tehuacán Valley State gastronomy, such as the sow thistle "lechuguita" (Sonchus oleraceus Vill.) and the turnip "nabo silvestre" (Brassica rapa L.), which are generally collected or gathered, but also the cultivated species like mango (Mangifera indica L.) and pomegranate "granada" (Punica granatum L.). ...
In Mexico, as in the rest of the world, the decreasing use of edible plant diversity for food and agriculture endangers the food sovereignty and security. Under this scenario, our focus was to identify both native and introduced edible species from the natural vegetation and their agroecosystems at the state of Querétaro, Mexico. We obtained the edible plants information through the inhabitants from different areas of the State, with complementary information from herbarium, digital databases, and specific literature. Finding information about edible plants is a routine activity at the QMEX herbarium fieldtrips. However, we have had two important periods for this research, one in 2012 for plant genetic resources information in the State, and recently for agrobiodiversity at the Sierra Madre Oriental (locally known as Sierra Gorda) between the years 2020 and 2022. A 1,098 records data base for edible plants of the state of Querétaro was assembled, containing 277 species, 156 genera and 61 families. Out of these, 240 (86.6%) were native species and 37 (13.3%) introduced. The Cactaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae, Asparagaceae and Amaranthaceae families accounted for 125 (44.9%) edible species. The eastern areas of the state represented the highest species richness, with ca. 41 species present. Our findings indicate that Querétaro has a genetic resources reserve of edible plants adapted to 19 of vegetation types and nine agroecosystems.
... Otro elemento que también nos habla del conocimiento y relación de las poblaciones humanas con las vegetales, son los múltiples usos registrados en trabajos etnobotánicos (Barrera-Bassols et al., 2016;Contreras-Barajas, 2018;Medina, 2021;Caballero et al., 2023). Algunos de los principales usos son: alimenticio, medicinal, como colorantes, aromatizantes, maderables, combustibles, para elaboración de artesanías, forrajes, adhesivos, para elaboración de bebidas (Blancas et al., 2016;Caballero et al., 2023). Moreno-Calles y colaboradores (2014,2016) registraron 17 usos diferentes de especies vegetales en sistemas bajo manejo agroforestal a nivel nacional. ...
... La coproducción entre sociedades y naturalezas se realiza a partir de conocimientos, técnicas y herramientas que han sido construidas y practicadas durante mucho tiempo y que continuamente siguen ajustándose para aprovechar la diversidad de interés y asegurar también su disponibilidad y permanencia en el tiempo (Blancas et al., 2016;. ...
... La diversidad biológica y las formas de manejo se moldean de forma recíproca, pues el estado de la diversidad y del socioecosistema determina las estrategias a implementar de acuerdo con la toma de decisiones(Caballero et al., 1998). Este manejo se puede realizar a distintas escalas espaciales, temporales y de organización social(Blancas et al., 2016).En diversas regiones de México se ha identificado la realización de estrategias de uso múltiple de la diversidad, éstas permiten sostener las economías familiares de subsistencia y enfrentar escenarios de incertidumbre(Ardón et al., 2018). Las estrategias de relaciones múltiples con la tierra están basadas en la diversidad de prácticas productivas, de ambientes, recursos y los usos para cada uno de ellos(Blancas et al., 2006;Toledo et al., 2008). ...
La cultural agroforestal de los animales domésticos en la tenencia de Undameo, Morelia, Michoaçán, México.
... O n l i n e f i r s t Studying current uses, preferences and management practices of plants (i.e., ethnobotanical research) may shed some light that enables us to reconstruct the motives behind the domestication process (e.g., Blancas et al. 2016). This is particularly true in domestication centers, where the descendants of former domesticators often continue interacting with crop wild relatives. ...
Background:
Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is the ancestor of most of the economically important chiles in the world. It is widely distributed throughout Mexico, and currently all indigenous groups interact with this plant species. On the Yucatan Peninsula wild chile is known as maax ik by the Maya. Although this area has been recognized as a domestication and diversification center of chile, ethnobotanical research on this species is still limited.
Questions:
What ecological knowledge do local people have about maax ik? Where and how is maax ik gathered and managed? What uses does maax ik currently have?
Studied species:
Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum
Study site and dates:
San Bernardo, Yucatan. Summer-Autumn 2021.
Methods:
In-depth semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. The management practices were identified, and management intensity was estimated.
Results:
Informants knew that maax ik reproduces sexually and recognized the role of birds in its seed dispersal. Maax ik was mainly gathered from homegardens where this species was tolerated and other non-selective incipient management practices such as protection and promotion were also carried out. Fruit was harvested without harming the plant and only a small portion of the available fruit was usually taken. The informants used maax ik essentially as food. The management intensity index was relatively high (5).
Conclusions:
Maax ik is a sustenance food resource that is sustainably used and non-selectively managed in homegardens by our informants in San Bernardo, Yucatan.
... For hunter-gatherers, knowing habitats, behavior, life cycle and annual seasons of events like migration, reproduction and phenological stages, and interactions with other organisms, among other facts of the resources used, was and still is crucial for designing such strategies, for agriculturalists and pastoralists, similarly, decision-making on dates for land tilling, seed sowing, harvesting and other agricultural labors, the routes, and seasons for optimizing grazing. The reproduction and birth seasons, the management of cycles of use, fallow and rotation of land and grasslands, and the multiple use of areas within territories are all aspects related to preventing and mitigating uncertainty or for ensuring availability of resources Blancas et al. 2016). Uncertainty in resources availability increases with risks on individuals used, or the populations, communities, and ecosystems they belong to, which may be put in critical situations by natural factors and human actions. ...
Management is commonly directed to decrease risk and increase certainty in resources availability. Risk in access to resources may be influenced not only by ecological factors, but also by human pressures which may be higher with the cultural and economic values of resources. People manage plants and fungi according to their role in subsistence, amounts available, and their quality and demand for their direct consumption and commercialization. This study aimed to analyze the management strategies and intensity, in relation to their distribution, abundance, and demand in the Purépecha community of Cuanajo, Michoacán. We expected more complex and intense management practices in more valued but scarce species. Through 25 in-depth interviews to agriculturalists and gatherers of wild plants and fungi from Cuanajo, Michoacán, we documented management intensity and risk of availability. Then, through categorizing all variables documented and using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) we estimated (using values of the first principal component) an index of management intensity (IMI) and an index of ecological risk (IER) for different use forms of the species of plants and mushrooms. We evaluated the relation between IMI and IER through regression analysis. We documented 50 species of plants and 23 species of mushrooms used, managed, and commercialized; nearly 71.2% of these species are obtained through simple gathering, and the rest involve silvicultural management in agroforestry systems and homegardens. Total 42 species are commercialized in regional markets, and 31 are consumed in the community. Plants with higher management intensity are those receiving higher number of practices with higher complexity, managed in several types of forest and agroforestry systems. More complex practices are carried out in plants with higher risk, restricted spatial and temporal availability; these species are in homegardens. Regression analyses were significant among higher risk and management intensity in edible, medicinal, ceremonial, and ornamental plants. Our chapter shows that the main motives for managing wild plants and mushrooms are related to pressures associated to demand in markets and for direct consumption by households, a pressure that is more pronounced in resources that are scarce. Using scarce resources causes risk, and management is a response to such risk.
... In contrast, ethnobotanists and anthropologists have documented thousands of edible species throughout the world. Only in Mexico, several studies have reported more than 2000 edible plant species, [36][37][38][39][40]. Among them, numerous wild species provide vegetables, fruits, nuts, tubers, and other edible products. ...
Mexico is one of the main regions of the world where the domestication of numerous edible plant species originated. Its cuisine is considered an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and ferments are important components but have been poorly studied. Traditional fermented foods are still diverse, but some are endangered, requiring actions to promote their preservation. Our study aimed to (1) systematize information on the diversity and cultural history of traditional Mexican fermented beverages (TMFB), (2) document their spatial distribution, and (3) identify the main research trends and topics needed for their conservation and recovery. We reviewed information and constructed a database with biocultural information about TMFB prepared and consumed in Mexico, and we analyzed the information through network approaches and mapped it. We identified 16 TMFB and 143 plant species involved in their production, species of Cactaceae, Asparagaceae, and Poaceae being the most common substrates. Microbiological research has been directed to the potential biotechnological applications of Lactobacillus, Bacillus, and Saccharomyces. We identified a major gap of research on uncommon beverages and poor attention on the cultural and technological aspects. TMFB are dynamic and heterogenous foodscapes that are valuable bi-ocultural reservoirs. Policies should include their promotion for conservation. The main needs of research and policies are discussed.
... The conceptual framework of ethnoecology allows analyzing the articulation of systems of beliefs, traditional knowledge and techniques of the handlers in the different expressions of forms of management (Blancas et al., 2016). Management can be defined as those practices and decisions made by humans in order to transform, recover or conserve elements, ecosystems or processes occurring in those systems, with the purpose of satisfying human needs, cultural purposes or general desires (Blancas et al., 2013). ...
... Management can be defined as those practices and decisions made by humans in order to transform, recover or conserve elements, ecosystems or processes occurring in those systems, with the purpose of satisfying human needs, cultural purposes or general desires (Blancas et al., 2013). Many plant resources are managed according to their bio-logical and ecological characteristics (life cycle, type of reproductive system, distribution, abundance, among others) (Blancas et al., 2013;Casas et al., 2016). According to their importance for a human culture it is possible to expect that not all plants will be managed in the same way or the same intensity (González-Insuasti and Caballero, 2007). ...
Background and Aims:
Hedeoma piperita is a plant popularly known as quiensabe and with traditional uses by the Purépecha people of San Francisco Pichátaro in Michoacán, Mexico. Despite its cultural relevance, the populations of H. piperita have been drastically reduced due to overexploitation. This work evaluated the traditional knowledge on the biology, ecology, and management of H. piperita among the indigenous community of San Francisco Pichátaro. Moreover, we aimed to evaluate its phenological development and relationships between phenological phases and local environmental variables.
Methods:
We applied 75 semi-structured surveys among women and men in three age groups of the community. Phenological analyses were conducted for 31 plants established in the wild and by recording the height, total number of leaves, branches, flowers, fruits and sprouts every 15 days from March 2014 to March 2015. Significant correlations between phenological and environmental variables were calculated using Spearman’s correlation coefficients.
Key results:
Sixty percent of the interviewed people knew and have used H. piperita, and most of them were women (71%). Alimentary purposes (as breakfast tea) were recognized as the main use among children and young people, while adults used it mostly for medicinal purposes. However, among the interviewees, little was known about the biological and ecological aspects of the species. We found that the stages of flowering and fructification overlap with the most intensive extraction season.
Conclusions:
Urgent management strategies are needed to recover and maintain this species in the wild, and within the Purépecha cosmos-corpus-praxis complex.
... argyrosperma might be associated with cultural preferences regarding fruit and seed selection associated with native American groups. In other domesticated species, genetic structure and morphological differentiation could be associated with fruit selection for a particular morphology (see Aguirre-Dugua et al., 2013;Blancas et al., 2016), and also with differences among human cultural management (Casas et al., 1996;Blancas et al., 2016;Sánchez-de la Vega et al., 2018). Future morphological and ethnobotanical analyses should be conducted to corroborate this hypothesis. ...
... argyrosperma might be associated with cultural preferences regarding fruit and seed selection associated with native American groups. In other domesticated species, genetic structure and morphological differentiation could be associated with fruit selection for a particular morphology (see Aguirre-Dugua et al., 2013;Blancas et al., 2016), and also with differences among human cultural management (Casas et al., 1996;Blancas et al., 2016;Sánchez-de la Vega et al., 2018). Future morphological and ethnobotanical analyses should be conducted to corroborate this hypothesis. ...
Premise:
Domestication usually involves local adaptation to environmental conditions. Cucurbita species are a promising model for studying these processes. Cucurbita moschata is the third major crop in the genus because of its economic value and because it displays high landrace diversity, but research about its genetic diversity, population structure, and phylogeography is limited. We aimed at understanding how geography and elevation shape the distribution of genetic diversity in C. moschata landraces in Mexico.
Methods:
We sampled fruits from 24 localities throughout Mexico. We assessed 11 nuclear microsatellite loci, one mtDNA region, and three cpDNA regions but found no variation in cpDNA. We explored genetic structure with cluster analysis, and phylogeographic relationships with haplotype network analysis.
Results:
Mitochondrial genetic diversity was high, and nuclear genetic differentiation among localities was intermediate compared to other domesticated Cucurbita. We found high levels of inbreeding. We recovered two mitochondrial lineages: highland (associated with the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt) and lowland. Nuclear microsatellites show that localities from the Yucatan Peninsula constitute a well-differentiated group.
Conclusions:
Mexico is an area of high diversity for C. moschata, and these landraces represent important plant genetic resources. In Mexico this species is characterized by divergence processes linked to an elevational gradient, which could be related to adaptation and may be of value for applications in agriculture. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec may be a partial barrier to gene flow. Morphological variation, agricultural management, and cultural differences may be related to this pattern of genetic structure, but further studies are needed.
... También existen las que son promovidas a partir de inducir deliberadamente su propagación para incrementar su abundancia, otras son protegidas de herbívoros, excesos de heladas, de humedad, sombra o insolación, y otras son cultivadas o trasplantadas desde sus contextos naturales a sitios construidos por seres humanos, principalmente huertas, cafetales, cacaotales, agrobosques, kuojtakiloyan (Moreno-Calles et al., 2013;Toledo, 2015), las selvas manejadas por los huastecos o te'lom (Alcorn, 1984), por los mayas o pet'kot (Gómez-Pompa et al., 1987) y otros múltiples sistemas agroforestales (Casas et al., 1997Moreno-Calles et al., 2013;Moreno Calles et al., 2016a;Vallejo-Ramos et al., 2016). Todas estas interacciones pueden involucrar selección humana o procesos guiados de flujo génico y manejo de sistemas reproductivos que inciden en procesos evolutivos y pueden influir en su domesticación (Parra et al., 2010;Casas et al., 2016b;Blancas et al., 2016). ...
La agrobiodiversidad comprende la diversidad silvestre y domesticada de
plantas, animales, hongos y microorganismos asociada directa e indirectamente
a los sistemas de producción de alimentos y materias primas, incluyendo
los sistemas agrícolas, pecuarios y silvícolas, todos los cuales se encuentran
en interacción en los procesos de producción rural, influyéndose mutuamente. Se contempla bajo este concepto la diversidad genética de especies en particular,
la riqueza y diversidad de especies que componen los sistemas referidos,
tanto los domesticados como aquellos en estados intermedios de domesticación
y sus parientes silvestres, así como numerosas especies silvestres que constituyen
recursos y brindan importantes servicios ecosistémicos. También incluye la heterogeneidad de unidades paisajísticas en las que se encuentran todos estos componentes dentro de unidades territoriales concretas. Esta noción nos remite a considerar una alta variedad de componentes y procesos en ecosistemas encuentran ligados entre sí y en los que se llevan a cabo actividades humanas primarias, las cuales sostienen la producción de alimentos y materias primas para múltiples destinos artesanales e industriales en el mundo. En este capítulo se presenta un panorama general de distintas dimensiones de esta diversidad.
... Some studies have shown that landscape elements are valued by farmers according to the roles that they play in the farming strategy [13][14][15][16]. Landscapes are the result of interactions between the natural elements (climate, geomorphology, water, vegetation, fauna), the actors that modify that nature, and the institutional and social context in which these actors are embedded. ...
Values play an important role in farmers' land management decisions, becoming increasingly relevant when designing environmental policy. One key element that influences farming decisions is the land tenure under which farmers and their land are embedded, which represents different sets of rights for farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to elicit farmers' values regarding the social and ecological attributes of the landscape, and determine how these values vary according to differences in land rights. We performed this exercise in the two most important land tenure systems in rural Mexico. We carried out a choice experiment to understand preferences for different landscape attributes such as vegetation cover, surface water, terrain slope, and type of property. Then, we probed how these preferences change according to the land rights that farmers hold. We found that surface water was consistently the most important landscape attribute. However, there were clear differences that were related to land rights for some values, such as for example, vegetation cover. Institutional mechanisms such as boundary rules and conflicting values are part of the explanation of these differences. These results provide a bridge to understanding farmers' management decisions, and in the future, improving sustainable development.
... In Chap. 10, Blancas et al. [ 90 ] show a case study conducted in indigenous communities of the Sierra Negra , a region neighbouring the Tehuacan Valley, analysing motives and factors infl uencing decision making about plant management. The authors identify ecological, socio-cultural, and technological factors that infl uence the level of intensity in which plant resources are managed. ...
Ethnobotany is a research aimed at understanding what people know about plants, how plants form part of their systems of beliefs and conceptions of the world, and how humans make use and manage plants for reproducing their social and cultural life. This chapter shows a general panorama of the historical use of ethnobotany in Mexico from pre-Columbian times to the modern arising of ethnobotany as a research field, as well as the main contemporary methodological approaches and challenges of researchers working on Mexican ethnobotany. Such panorama conforms an introductory context for discussing the importance and limits of this book and a general description of the contributions of the each chapter that forms part of the text. We then discuss a general perspective of the Mexican ethnobotany in order to make stronger an “after description step” of this research field, recognizing the importance of descriptive methods but the need of emphasizing the analytical contribution of ethnobotany on research questions connected with research fields like anthropology, archaeology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. All these are research areas requiring support from both quantitative and qualitative ethnobotanical approaches in order to analyse social and anthropological problems such as the role of natural resources in human cultures, peoples’ cosmovision, and their social organization and technology for interacting with ecosystems. Also, ethnobotany is necessary to ecology for studying important problems like the human influence on distribution and abundance of the flora of the world and the historical configuration of ecosystems. In addition, ethnobotany is crucial for understanding the past and ongoing processes of domestication in order to understand factors influencing the origins of agriculture. Ethnobotany is crucial for understanding evolutionary ecological processes influencing divergence between wild and managed populations of plants and perspectives of management of plant genetic resources. And finally, we discuss the general importance of ethnobotany as a bridge for building social–ecological views and trans-disciplinary approaches for constructing sustainability science. Ethnobotany is a promising research field for reinforcing the human understanding of nature and society, but also for solving practical problems in the context of the world’s environmental crisis associated to global change.
