engleski

Ethnobotany of the Adriatic islands in Croatia

There are over a thousand islands in Croatia but only 79 have an area of over 1 km2 and only 48 are inhabited. The Adriatic islands are very attractive places for tourism. They are influenced both by the influx of well-off new inhabitants from different countries of Europe, and the exodus of the local population to mainland cities. In order to preserve the remaining scraps of traditional knowledge among the local indigenous population, in 2014-2017 we interviewed over 250 key informants on 17 islands on the Adriatic Coast. The main goal of the study was to document wild edible plants, with particular reference to wild vegetables. Using the opportunity to talk to elderly informants, we also interviewed them about other aspects of traditional knowledge, e.g. medicinal plants, and plants used for dyes and tools, as well as ritual plants. One striking discovery was that one island preserved its knowledge significantly better than others, namely Korčula. In every village on Korčula most people know and use numerous wild vegetables and are willing to talk about it. In contrast to this some large islands have almost completely lost their knowledge of plants. This is, for example, the case with Dugi Otok and the Lastovo islands. Our preliminary results suggest that knowledge was better preserved on larger islands with living agriculture and with more lively communities, where the interchange and transfer of knowledge is easier. On smaller islands there are fewer habitats for gathering wild edible plants, and a large proportion of inhabitants are retired people who spent most of their lives abroad, e.g. in the USA, and are not interested in traditional ways of life. Apart from on Korčula, several individuals with considerable reservoirs of knowledge can still be found on Brač, Šolta and Pašman.

ethnobotany ; wild vegetables ; wild edible plants ; wild food plants

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