Ethnobotanical studies in the High River Ter Valley (Pyrenees, Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

We present the preliminary results of an ethnobotanical study centred in the Camprodon valley (Pyrenees, North Eastern Iberian Peninsula), with an extension of 294 km2 and a population of 4,526 inhabitants. The main goal of the present study is the knowledge of the traditional uses of plants in the studied area with a special focus on medicinal and, secondarily, food plants. We performed 42 interviews to 60 people, 37% of which are men and the remaining 63% are women. The mean age of the interviewees is 71. As a general result, 302 out of the 312 plant species reported in this ethnobotanical research have at least one use; for the remaining 10 taxa the informants only knew the folk names. Outlining that several of them have more than one application, 220 have been used as medicinal (both in human and veterinarian medicine), 100 as food or forage and 71 display other traditional uses. As it is not rare in other areas studied, some of the food plants are also used as medicinal. The present survey shows a rather high degree of conservation of the traditional knowledge on plant use and management in the mountain zone considered.