Ethnobotanical uses of wild flora and fungi on the

circum-Sicilian island of Pantelleria, Italy

Cassandra L. Quave, Ph.D. Emory University Department of Dermatology Center for the Study of Human Health E-mail: cquave@emory.edu Website: http://etnobotanica.us/ Twitter: @QuaveEthnobot

Alessandro Saitta, Ph.D.

Università di Palermo

Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences

Background and Study Site

• 1969 – Galt & Galt (Econ. Bot.) conducted an ethnobotanical study in Khamma

• 45 years later, we investigate how TEK and practice has changed

Specchio di Venere

Pantescan Gardens

Olive groves

Zibibbo grapes: passito wine

Caperi

Capparis spinosa subsp. rupestris (Sm.) Nyman, Capparaceae

Lactic-acid fermentation of the flower buds in salt to make capers!

Methods • PIC of community governance

and individuals • 42 informants

▫ age ranged from 28-90, with a median age of 64 and gender distribution of 59.5% male and 40.5% female

• Free-listing and semi-structured interviews complemented with a booklet composed of photos of 28 fungi and 93 plants

• Data analysis based on informant consensus factor, free-listing percent measure, fidelity levels, and use-value citation index

Results • Galt and Galt (1978) documented 107 specific uses of

local botanical taxa • Of these, 45 were not quoted by any informants in

our 2014 survey, representing a loss of 42% of the uses documented 45 years ago

• An additional 235 specific uses of local flora and fungi were recorded in the present work, which were not included in the original study.

• A total of 95 plant taxa and 17 fungal taxa, representing 44 and 9 plant and fungal families, respectively, were cited by the study participants.

• Data on 2,124 use citations were collected, representing a total of 297 distinct sets of communal knowledge regarding specific taxa

Informant Consensus Factor

𝐹𝑖𝑐 =𝑁𝑢𝑐 −𝑁𝑡𝑁𝑢𝑐 − 1

• Nuc : total number of use citations in each category

• Nt : number of taxa used in that category

• High Fic values (near 1.0) are obtained when one or a few species are reported to be used by a large proportion of informants for a particular category, whereas lower Fic values indicate that informants disagree over which taxa to use

Informant consensus on use of plants & fungi

Category of Local Use Number of

Taxa

Number of Use

Reports

Informant’s Consensus

Factor (Fic)

Food 52 795 0.936

Household 41 497 0.919

Maritime 9 55 0.852

Nuisance 22 160 0.868

Ethnoveterinary 29 275 0.898

Dermatological 17 88 0.816

Gastrointestinal 12 137 0.919

General health 8 29 0.750

Musculoskeletal & Neurological 7 23 0.727

Oral health 1 2 1.000

Otolaryngological & Respiratory 5 7 0.333

Urological 7 56 0.891

Total 210 2124

Basket weaving for Agricultural & Fishing Tools

Daphne gnidium L., Thymelaeaceae

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. , Cactaceae “ficcund’india” ;“prickly pear”; “indian fig” Food, medicine and hunting tool!

Malva arborea (L.) Webb & Berthel.

Conclusions

• TEK concerning wild foods, household uses and ethnoveterinary applications is widespread

• Wild plants and fungi still collected and eaten

• Knowledge, but not practice, of historic maritime applications (e.g. fish poisons, boat construction, fiber dyes)

• Loss of detail in plants used in spiritual healing (e.g. use of Ruta chalapensis)

Acknowledgments

• Funding support provided Emory University Center for the Study of Human Health.

• We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Commune of Pantelleria and all Pantescan communities and people who agreed to participate in this study.

• We also thank Marco Caputo for assistance with field collection of voucher specimens.