Volume 128, Issue 2, 24 March 2010, Pages 395–404
Changes in the utilization of wild green vegetables in Poland since the 19th century: A comparison of four ethnobotanical surveys
Abstract
Aims of study
The
aim of this paper is to compare the presence of wild green vegetables
in four ethnobotanical questionnaires. This range of surveys offers a
rich diachronic perspective, possibly unique in ethnobotany.
Materials and methods
Four
archival questionnaires (by other researchers), whose results have been
only partly published, were analyzed. They are Rostafiński's
questionnaire of 1883–1909, the Gajek team's questionnaires of 1948–1949
and 1964–1969, and Stoličná and Kłodnicki's questionnaire of 2000–2003.
Results
Green
shoots or leaves of least 58 species (belonging to 43 genera) of wild
plants have been used as green vegetables or culinary herbs for
nutritional purposes since the 19th century. The disappearance of wild
green vegetables from the Polish diet was a gradual process, in which
the sequence of disappearance of the species from diet was as follows:
(1) Aegopodium & Heracleum, (2) Cirsium, Sinapis & Raphanus, (3) Urtica, (4) Chenopodium, (5) Oxalis, (6) Rumex.
In Poland, within the studied time scale, there was no tradition of
incorporating more than a few species of wild greens in one dish. Local
people usually utilized a small number of taxa, but in large quantities,
resorting to some other available species only in times of famine.
Conclusions
The
relatively low number of wild green vegetables utilized has gradually
decreased to practically none, mainly due to replacement by a few
cultivated vegetables. This process must have started well before the
19th century, but became most dramatic throughout the 20th century.
Graphical abstract
The
aim of this paper is to compare the presence of wild green vegetables
in four ethnobotanical questionnaires from 1883, 1948, 1964 and 2000,
carried out in Poland. This range of surveys offers a rich diachronic
perspective, possibly unique in ethnobotany. The use of 58 species was
recorded but these were mainly famine plants. Very few species were used
per locality, even in the 19th century. Wild green vegetables have been
gradually disappearing from Polish folk cuisine for the last few
hundred years. The sequence of disappearance is as follows: (1) Aegopodium & Heracleum, (2) Sinapis, Raphanus, Cirsium, (3) Urtica, (4) Chenopodium, (5) Oxalis, (6) Rumex.
Keywords
- Wild food plants;
- Wild edible plants;
- Historical ethnobotany;
- Leaves in nutrition
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