Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany studies how people in different societies understand, classify, manage, and use plants. It connects botanical knowledge with cultural practices, livelihoods, and histories.

Traditional medicine: Health practices and remedies rooted in the knowledge and traditions of particular societies. Ethnobotanical research documents how communities use plants to prevent and treat illness.
Ethnobiology: The study of how human societies understand and interact with living organisms and ecosystems. Ethnobotany is its plant-focused branch.
Richard Evans Schultes: An American botanist known for research on Indigenous plant use, especially in the Amazon. His fieldwork and writing helped establish ethnobotany as a widely recognized discipline.
Bioprospecting: The search for commercially valuable genetic and biochemical resources in nature. Ethnobotanical leads can attract commercial interest in plants and associated knowledge.
Medicinal plants: Plants used for therapeutic purposes because of their traditional or pharmacological properties. Their identification and use are central subjects of ethnobotanical study.
Folk taxonomy: A system by which a community names and classifies organisms using its own categories. Comparing local plant classifications with scientific taxonomy reveals how communities organize botanical knowledge.
Harvard Botanical Museum: A Harvard University institution devoted to botanical research and collections, now part of the Harvard University Herbaria. Schultes directed its Economic Botany program, which helped institutionalize ethnobotanical research.
Nagoya Protocol: An international agreement governing access to genetic resources and the fair sharing of benefits from their use. It provides a framework relevant to access and benefit-sharing when research uses genetic resources.
Agroforestry: Land-use systems that combine trees with crops or livestock on the same land. It shows how local plant knowledge informs productive, managed landscapes.
Traditional ecological knowledge: Knowledge, practices, and beliefs about the environment developed and transmitted within communities over time. It provides the broader environmental knowledge in which plant uses and classifications are embedded.

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