Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, intoxicants and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", explained the discipline in this way:
Ethnobotany simply means investigating plants used by primitive societies in various parts of the world.
Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant. The species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The specific epithet sativa means 'cultivated'. Indigenous to Eastern Asia, the plant is now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation. It has been cultivated throughout recorded history and used as a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, food, and medicine. It is also used as a recreation drug and for religious and spiritual purposes.
Ocimum tenuiflorum, commonly known as holy basil or tulsi, is an aromatic perennial plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Australia, Malesia, Asia, and the western Pacific. It is widely cultivated throughout the Southeast Asian tropics. This plant has escaped from cultivation and has naturalized in many tropical regions of the Americas. It is an agricultural and environmental weed.
Baccharis is a genus of perennials and shrubs in the aster family (Asteraceae). They are commonly known as baccharises but sometimes referred to as "brooms", because many members have small thin leaves resembling the true brooms. They are not at all related to these however, but belong to an entirely different lineage of eudicots. B. halimifolia is commonly known as "groundsel bush", however true groundsels are found in the genus Senecio.
Nierembergia rivularis, the whitecup or water neirembergia, is a species of ornamental plant in the Solanaceae family. The species is also commonly known as chuscho.
Ayapana is a genus of perennial herbs in the family Asteraceae.
Agasyllis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the celery family Apiaceae. The single species, A. latifolia. is endemic to the Caucasus, where it is valued both as a food and a folk medicine.
Sonchus oleraceus is a species of flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and Western Asia. It has many common names including common sowthistle, sow thistle, smooth sow thistle, annual sow thistle, hare's colwort, hare's thistle, milky tassel, milk thistle. and soft thistle.
Borrichia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is named for Danish physician Ole Borch (1628–1690). Members of the genus are commonly known as seaside tansies. They are native to North and South America.
Aerial stem modifications are modifications to the aerial stems, vegetative buds and floral buds of plants growing in different conditions and which perform functions such as climbing, protection, support, synthesis of food, or vegetative propagation. Aerial stem structures that undergo modifications to perform these special functions include tendrils, thorns, hooks, phylloclade, tuberous stems, and bulbils. The auxiliary or the terminal part of the modified structures shows their stem nature.
Rauvolfia vomitoria, the poison devil's-pepper, is a plant species in the genus Rauvolfia. It is native from Senegal east to Sudan and Tanzania, south to Angola; and naturalized in China, Bangladesh, different ranges of Himalayan and Puerto Rico. The plant contains a number of compounds of interest to the pharmaceutical industry and is widely used in traditional medicine.
Xenorhabdus innexi is a bacterium from the genus of Xenorhabdus which has been isolated from the nematode Steinernema scapterisci in Uruguay.
Azorella atacamensis is a species of flowering plant in the genus Azorella found in Argentina and Chile.
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana is a Bolivian ethnobotanist. She investigates the use and protection of traditional knowledge of plants in indigenous communities, particularly in the Bolivian Andes. She is currently an Associated Researcher at the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andres in Bolivia. Her goal is giving them the knowledge to participate in decision-making on the conservation of their intangible cultural heritage.
Pluchea carolinensis is a plant in the genus Pluchea.
Rainer W. Bussmann is a German botanist and vegetation ecologist, specializing in ethnobotany and ethnobiology, wild food plants, wild crop relatives, climate change, gastronomic botany and preservation of traditional knowledge in the Andes, the Caucasus and the Himalayas. He has worked at the University of Bayreuth, University of Hawaii, University of Texas, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Ilia State University and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe; he has founded several international non-governmental organizations, including Nature and Culture International, Saving Knowledge, and Ethnomont.
Baccharis articulata is a species of shrub in the family Asteraceae.
Ben-Erik van Wyk FAAS is a South African professor of indigenous botany and traditional African medicine at the University of Johannesburg.
Cussonia holstii is a small to medium size tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. The tree is similar in shape to a paw paw tree.
Myrianthus holstii is a plant species within the family Urticaceae. It grows either as a shrub or tree. It is considered a dioecious species but a monoecious tree has been observed.
