Video 10 in the Introduction to Ethnobotany series. Presented by Tamara Ticktin.
When we think about important food plants, we think about the agricultural staples that make up the diets of most societies across the world today. However, all human societies depended on gathering a diversity of wild plants and animals for thousands of years and wild food plants continue to play important roles in all agricultural societies today. This episode discusses the use of wild food plants in the past, using Hawaii as an example, and then examines the multiple roles that wild food plants play in our lives today.