Floristic Inventory and Ethnobotany of Wild Edible Plants in Cebu Island, Philippines

Abstract

The study discussed the  diversity, utilization, socio-economic value and threats associated to the wild edible plants (WEPs) in Cebu Island, Philippines. Semi-structured  interview, field observations and pairwise ranking were utilized to  generate responses from purposively-selected  informants living in  three mountain communities in Cebu: Mt. Kapayas, Catmon, Nug-as Forest Reserve, Alcoy and Cantabaco Forest, Toledo. The study recorded a total of 168 edible plant species belonging to 111 genera and 97 families. Majority of plant habits of the recorded plants were trees (42.94%), herbs (30%) and shrubs (14.71%). The recorded use of WEPs include food, medicine, construction/technology, beverage, forage, food coloring and condiments where 30% of the informants suggest the marketability of the WEPs and 14.7% of the WEPs were reported as alternative food source. Test for use diversity showed significant difference in the uses of WEPs in the three sites (X2 = 2.46, α = 0.05). Pairwise-ranking results indicated that selective cutting for construction and technology, natural disaster and agricultural expansion are key threats to WEPs in these areas. The study suggests 1) public awareness and community-based management at all levels to lessen threats, 2) further investigation on nutritive and socio-economic values;and 3) investigation of pharmacological profiles to evaluate medicinal benefits.  Keywords : wild edible plants, ethnobotany, alternative food source