SITUATION OF THE ETHNOBOTANY IN SPAIN (PYRENEES AND NORTH-EAST TERRITORRY OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA)

Abstract

The object of Ethnobotany is the study of the useful plants (both spontaneous and cultivated) for man and domestic animals: medicinal and food plants, plants of economic interest for crafts and industry, plants used for magic or preventive medicine, etc. This paper will focus on the medicinal and useful plants in general, leaving aside most of the crops or plants of economic interest. The Pyrenees and the Ebro basin exhibit a mosaic of the plant landscapes of Europe. There are some 3,000 vascular species in this territory. A great part of the ethnobotanical knowledge still prevailed in 1950-60, and was wonderfully compiled by FONT QUER. This knowledge had its origin in a rural world full of life, overflowing with a popular culture perfectly integrated in its environment. A much richer culture, undoubtedly, than scientific knowledge. The rural depopulation took place and that popular knowledge started to disappear. In the 1980s, firstly some isolated researchers (chemists and biologists), then some Faculties of Pharmacy became again interested in that cultural heritage. Nevertheless there are no multidisciplinary teams yet, constituted by anthropologists or ethnologists, botanists, chemists, linguists, etc. capable of bringing to light the remaining popular knowledge and integrating it into the written and experimental science. This paper will present these considerations and we will examine the main works published or that are being carried out about NE territory of the Iberian Peninsula.