Species Diversity of Edible Plants Grown in Homegardens of Chibchan Amerindians From Costa Rica

Abstract

We studied edible crop species diversity at homegardens of two Chibchan Amerindian Reserves in Costa Rica: Talamanca and Coto Brus. We visited six settlements at Talamanca and five at Coto Brus. We recorded the number of edible crop species growing homegardens; we found 46 edible plant species at Talamanca and 27 at Coto Brus. The mean number of species per homegarden ranged between 3.80 and 6.80 at Coto Brus and 4.50 and 8.63 at Talamanca. We identified species that were common, i.e., found in most households and all settlements, and species that were rare. We estimated diversity indexes for each settlement and each Reserve. Also, we compared crop species composition between both Reserves and among settlements within each Reserve, using the Jaccard coefficient of community similarity. Settlements from the same Reserve were grouped together, with the exception of Villa Palacios from the Coto Brus Reserve.