engleski

The Ethnobotany and Biogeography of Wild Vegetables in the Adriatic Islands

Archipelagos of islands have played an important role in shaping some of the paradigms of biology, including the theory of the evolution of species and the theory of island biogeography. Although ethnobotany is a well-established discipline, patterns of knowledge about plant uses in archipelagos have never been quantitatively analysed, and the whole concept has been only briefly mentioned in the ethnobiological context. The aim of our study was to record which taxa of wild vegetables have been consumed in the Adriatic islands and to establish if such variables as island size, population size, flora or its isolation are correlated with the number of wild vegetables used. We interviewed 225 people (fifteen from each island). Altogether the use of 89 species of wild vegetables has been recorded. The largest number of wild vegetables is eaten on the islands of Korčula, Vis and Šolta, and the lowest on Ugljan, Cres and Dugi Otok. The studied variables had a small and statistically not significant effect on the wild vegetable list length. The most visible effect was an increasing trend from north-west to south-east, overrunning the typical biogeographical island patterns. Moreover, one of the large and well-populated islands, Korčula, showed an ‘unusually’ high level of wild vegetable use. Most interesting edible species used in the Adriatic Islands are Bunium alpinum, Cytinus hypocystis (both mainly on Pašman), Lotus edulis (on Vis) and Posidonia oceanica (on Vis and Korčula). The recorded relationships between the demographic and geographical features of islands were statistically not significant. We assume that cultural and historical factors diversifying the use of plants in particular islands are stronger than the above mentioned measurable variables.

wild edible plants ; wild food plants ; ethnobiology ; leafy vegetables ; Mediterranean diet

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