Traditional uses of wild plants in the villages around Esence mountains (Eastern Anatolia-Turkiye)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the natural plants used traditionally by the local people for different ethnobotanical purposes in the villages around Esence (Keşiş) Mountains. Within the scope of the study, field trips to the villages were organized in the summer periods between 2010 and 2013. During my investigations face-to-face interviews were conducted with people living in the region and ethnobotanical features of the plants recorded. Our findings revealed that 139 plant taxa belonging to 107 genera and 40 families are distributed in the study area. The families with highest number of taxa were Rosaceae (19), Asteraceae (13), Fabaceae (11) and Lamiaceae (11). The plants collected were mostly used as food (95 taxa), spice (12 taxa) and animal fodder (12 taxa). The most commonly used plant organs were leaves (45 taxa) followed by fruits (27 taxa) and flowers (24 taxa). The most common way of consumption was raw (48 plants), cooked (32 plants), as salads (13 plants), spice (11 plants) and jam (11 plants). Our results also revealed that 9 endemic taxa were traditionally used in the area for a variety of ethnobotanical purposes.