Cultural Importance of Wild or Traditionally Collected Plants in the Sierra de Grazalema (Southern Spain)

Abstract

The aim of this work is to evaluate the knowledge about, and diversity and cultural significance of, wild or traditionally collected plants used in the Sierra de Grazalema, located in Southeastern Spain. Nine hundred and ninety-three use reports for 98 popular names, corresponding to 124 species, were recorded. The ethnobotanical information was obtained through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. Informants had high empirical knowledge of wild plants and lived and/or worked in the area. The human food uses showed the highest use reports with 40% of the total, followed by that of technological uses with 30%. Mentha pulegium (pennyroyal) is the most culturally significant plant in the area according to the cultural importance index (1.50). The second plant in the ranking (1.20) is Olea europaea var. sylvestris (wild olive). Inflorescences from Helichrysum italicum and Helichrysum stoechas have medicinal uses (0.94). The fourth plant in the cultural importance index ranking is Scolymus hispanicus (0.97). Finally, amongst the most popular plants in the Sierra de Grazalema is Phlomis purpurea (0.97). Our results indicate that in the Sierra de Grazalema, some wild or traditionally collected plants are deeply rooted in popular culture. The cultural importance index presented in this work could be a useful tool to evaluate the possibilities of sustainable exploitation of these resources.