Abstract
M.Sc. (Environmental Management)
Over the last 40 years, there has been growing research attention in South Africa regarding ethnobotanically important plant taxa. Many of these studies have documented wild plants as well as their uses in the form of inventories. Similarly, this case study on ethnobotanically important plant taxa in the Thulamela Local Municipality of the Limpopo province also provided inventories. However, over and above these inventories, an attempt was made to characterise existing ethnobotanical knowledge in the selected rural villages by means of quantititative indices such as (1) the Relative Frequency Index, (2) Cultural Importance Index, (3) Informant Consensus Factor and (4) the Direct Matrix Index.
The case study design was used in which two non-probability methods were adopted namely, purposive and snowball sampling. This was done in order to target 10 respondents with ethnobotanical knowledge in the respective villages. Snowball and purposive sampling was also used to select 5 key respondents in each village that participated in the Focused Group Discussions.
The study identified and documented a total of 135 different wild plants species that are used for different traditional applications in the study area. About 24 wild plants are used as ethnomedicine; 36 wild plants as edible (food and beverages); 12 for traditional ethnoveterinary purposes; 40 for fuel wood; and 23 as construction and building materials. Approximately 15 wild plants species have multiple uses, thus signifying their ethnobotanical importance in the villages surveyed. Furthermore, certain plant use categories appeared more important than others. For example, the use category of food and beverage plants was found to be very important, especially in the light of the quantitative methods which were employed in this case study. In most instances, food and beverage plants exhibited higher Informant Consensus Factor (ICF) values than other plant uses. Same plant group also scored 0.45 to 0.90 in terms of Species Popularity Index (SPI), thus clearly denoting their ethnobotanical importance in the study area.
In terms of characterising the ethnobotanical knowledge of respondents, their Ethnobotanical Knowledge Index (EKI) values ranged from 0.36-0.85. It was found that most respondents aged between 51-70 years old had higher EKI values. These values bear resemblance to results obtained by Nortje (2011) and De Beer (2011), whereby respondents who scored higher EKI values tended to be equal or more that 55 years old while their younger counterparts exhibited lower EKI indices. The results also shed some light on the role of traditional conservation knowledge in the Thulamela Local Municipality. Furthermore, none of the wild plant species documented in this case study were found to be in the South African Red Data List, implying that they are of least conservation concern although this can change if they are locally over-utilised and over-harvested. Based on the results that emanated from this case study, a few recommendations for further research have been provided.