Ethnobotanical Study Of Wetland Plants In Yangzhou And Dongtai Areas Of Jiangsu Province

The wetlands are very rich in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The wetland plants provided many of the necessities of life to the local people historically, some of them are still useful presently. With the development of urbanization and changes of lifestyle, much of the traditional knowledge on wetland plants has completely been lost. A field ethnobotanical research has been conducted to collect the traditional knowledge of the wetland plants in central part of Jiangsu and northern part of Jiangsu Province. Structured interviews, key informant interviews and participatory observation have been used in the field work. The results showed that edible plants, fiber plants, forage plants and medicinal plants are dominant in two study areas. The characteristics of different environments have a vital influence on the traditional practice of selecting wetland plants, The people of different ages showed differences in traditional knowledge on wetland plants.The main research results are as follows:1. Wetland plants are utilized very abundant in the two study areas, we collected 85 species of wetland plants in Yangzhou, belonging to 64 genera,31 families, the most abundant species of plants are forage plants; A total of 112 species of wetland plants in Dongtai, belonging to 86 genera,39 families, the most abundant species of plants are medicinal plants.2. We compared the knowledge of medicinal plants, forage plants, food plants and fiber plants in the two study areas. The Jaccard similarity indices of knowledge on medicinal plants in the two areas are very high, which are 50%、31.25% and 30.56% on the family, genus and species levels, respectively. For forage plants, two study areas show a low Jaccard similarity indices, which are 40%、26.32% and 28.57%, respectively, the two areas show their regional characteristics in the distribution and traditional knowledge of forage plants; For fiber plants, two areas show a high Jaccard similarity indices, which are 40%、33.3%and 37.5%, respectively. There are a total of 6 fiber plants in Yangzhou, and 16 in Dongtai, the high similarity index of usage of fiber plants in the two areas may related to the number of fiber plants in Yangzhou area.3. We compare the differences in the utilization of medicinal plants, forage plants, food plants and fiber plants between genders in the two study areas. In Yangzhou area, the average information of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants among men is 3.768, and female is 3.763; the average information of the traditional knowledge of forage plants among men is 4.625, and female is 4.940; the average information of the traditional knowledge of fiber plants among men is 3.515, and female is 3.755. In Dongtai area, the average information of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants among men is 6.412, and female is 6.016; the average information of the traditional knowledge of forage plants among men is 5.353, and female is 5.169; the average information of the traditional knowledge of fiber plants among men is 4.393, and female is 6.768. The results show that there are no significant differences between genders in utilization of wetland plants. Men and women’s role in using of traditional knowledge is similar.4. We compare the differences in utilization of medicinal plants, forage plants, food plants and fiber plants between young group and older group in two study areas. In Yangzhou area, the average information of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants are 2.941 and 3.928, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively; forage plants of traditional knowledge are 2.920 and 5.711, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively; fiber plant of traditional knowledge are 3.083 and 4.000, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively; As in Dongtai area, the average information of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants are 4.727 and 6.534, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively; forage plants of traditional knowledge are 2.472 and 5.966, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively; fiber plant of traditional knowledge are 4.705 and 7.630, among the young group (under the age of 40) and older group (over the age of 40), respectively. The results show that there are significant differences between young group and older group in utilization of wetland plants, older group know much more than young group, people acquire more traditional knowledge with age.