Abstract
<p>Croatia’s versatile plant use traditions are still not sufficiently documented. The aim of this study was to record local traditions of wild food plant use on the Dubrovnik coast. We interviewed 40 inhabitants of 23 villages, mainly knowledgeable informants. On average 19 species were listed, which in total produced an inventory of 95 food plant species (including species whose leaves or inflorescences are used as recreational teas).</p><p>The most commonly collected are: <em>Sonchus oleraceus</em> and <em>S. asper</em>, <em>Asparagus acutifolius</em>, <em>Dioscorea communis</em>, <em>Cichorium intybus</em>, <em>Crepis zacintha</em>, <em>Allium ampeloprasum</em>, <em>Picris echioides</em> and <em>Foeniculum vulgare</em> (all of them used as vegetables), the fruits of <em>Rubus ulmifolius</em> (mainly eaten raw), the fruits of roses (<em>Rosa sempervirens</em> and <em>R. canina</em>) and the leaves of <em>Salvia officinalis</em> (both roses and salvia are used for making recreational teas). A particular feature of the local gastronomy is the collection of young <em>Ruscus aculeatus</em> shoots.</p>
Highlights
The documentation of traditionally used wild food plants has been carried out in many European countries over the last several years [1,2,3,4,5,6], and reviews of older ethnographic literature concerning this issue have been published [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
Study site The study site is located around Dubrovnik, in the Croatian section of the Adriatic coast between the areas of the coast belonging to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro (Fig. 1)
A Dalmatian/Venetian (Romanesque) language elite lived in the city of Dubrovnik for centuries, while the lower classes spoke a dialect of Croatian
Summary
The documentation of traditionally used wild food plants has been carried out in many European countries over the last several years [1,2,3,4,5,6], and reviews of older ethnographic literature concerning this issue have been published [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The Adriatic coast has a rich tradition of using wild foods in nutrition. This probably stems from a combination of two factors: the low productivity of rocky soils, which made people utilize every possible food resource, and Mediterranean cultural influences (the widespread appreciation of wild greens in the Mediterranean diet). As traditional ecological knowledge is eroding fast in most of Europe, the Handling Editor: Beata Zagórska-Marek aim of our study was to document the wild food plants used or in the past around the city of Dubrovnik
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