Naji Sulaiman

The Alps, the highest mountain range of Europe, shared by seven countries, are characterized by high biocultural diversity fostered by their geography. Among the several distinct groups inhabiting them, the Walser are Alemannic communities who settled in the Western Alps during medieval times and are recognized for their distinctive architecture, land management, and German-rooted languages. We present here a diachronic ethnobotanical study of Walser communities in the Italian Alps, documenting 43 plant taxa traditionally used as food and medicine. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, we trace the accelerating erosion of traditional wild-food knowledge and the food practices associated with it along three converging axes: demographic depopulation, language attrition, and the collapse of subsistence food systems and related land management. The ethnobotanical comparison reveals a rapid narrowing of the knowledge horizon: active wild-plant knowledge holders are now generally over 60, core culinary species are retained in cultural memory but increasingly less used, and local varieties of the Walser language, which encode ecological and nutritional distinctions with no direct Italian equivalents, are critically endangered. These processes threaten not only biocultural heritage but also the continuity of locally embedded food practices and intergenerational knowledge transmission. We argue that the revitalization of traditional wild-plant food practices may provide a socially sustainable entry point for strengthening community resilience, reconnecting generations with local environments, and safeguarding broader bodies of at-risk biocultural knowledge.

This study investigates traditional plant knowledge among Gallo-Lucanian and Lucanian-speaking communities of inland Lucania (Basilicata), Southern Italy, through a cross-cultural and cross-temporal ethnobotanical approach. In a handful of mountain villages, a Gallo-Lucanian substratum survives, carried south by settlers from Piedmont and Liguria between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries; nine hundred years later, we ask what remains of the plants and of the words they brought with them. Fieldwork carried out in 2024 and 2025 with 90 participants in fifteen municipalities, half of them Gallo-Lucanian and half Lucanian speakers, documented 127 identified plant taxa and 12 emic taxa used mainly as wild food and household medicine. The two communities share most of their botanical repertoire: 74 taxa are cited by both, and their Jaccard similarity reaches 0.58. What sets them apart is not the flora but the lexicon, together with the emphasis placed on individual taxa, which differs significantly between the groups. Seven vernacular phytonyms have no counterpart in the surrounding Southern Italian dialects and preserve forms with plausible Piedmontese or Ligurian cognates; several survive attached to plants no longer gathered, so the word outlives the practice it once named. Set against surveys carried out in the same region in 2000–2005 and in inland Liguria, the contemporary repertoire has contracted, particularly among taxa of montane and subalpine distribution, in a landscape reshaped by pastoral decline, land abandonment and recurrent drought. Notably, a substantial share of the gathered taxa is crop wild relatives, among them Beta vulgaris, Daucus carota, Lactuca serriola, Cynara cardunculus, Pastinaca sativa, Asparagus acutifolius, Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Prunus spinosa and Pyrus spinosa, maintained in the interstitial habitats of terraces, field margins and abandoned pastures that these inner areas still preserve. Folk plant uses recorded in minority communities thus provide both a sensitive record of biocultural change and a route to identifying, conserving in situ, and potentially using plant genetic resources in marginal Mediterranean territories.

This study investigates the ethnobiology of wild food plants in Arbëreshë (Albanian-speaking) and neighbouring Calabrian communities in north-eastern Calabria, inland southern Italy. It examines how traditional ecological knowledge, plant use patterns, and cultural perceptions are represented across two datasets, contributing to the understanding of biocultural dynamics in Mediterranean rural contexts. Fieldwork was conducted through forty-six semi-structured interviews in five villages in north-eastern Calabria, Southern Italy. Data were compared with an ethnobotanical dataset collected in the Vulture area (northern Lucania, southern Italy) during 2000–2001. The comparison is treated as cross-spatial and diachronic at the level of observed ethnobotanical records. Because the study areas differ in ecological and socio-economic conditions, comparisons are presented as descriptive contrasts rather than as direct temporal change. Taxa were classified by citation frequency, and comparisons were conducted at genus level to describe patterns of presence and variation in reported wild plant use. A total of 82 wild food taxa were documented. The dataset was dominated by vascular plants, with frequent representation of the families Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Apiaceae, and Lamiaceae. Arbëreshë participants reported 60 genera, including seven genera not recorded in the comparative dataset (Asphodeline, Pimpinella, Hirschfeldia, Silene, Bellevalia, Leontodon, and Crocus). Calabrian participants reported 28 genera, including three not recorded among Arbëreshë participants (Clinopodium, Suillus, and Urospermum). Twenty-one genera were present in both datasets. Differences in citation frequency and genus composition are observed between datasets, with variation across groups and contexts. The results show a shared set of commonly reported wild food taxa across datasets, alongside variation in less frequently reported genera. The findings describe differences in ethnobotanical records across communities and time-separated datasets, reflecting combined influences of ecological context, sampling conditions, and local knowledge practices.

Societal Impact Statement: Traditional knowledge about wild plants connects people to nature and sustains both cultural identity and biodiversity. This study explores how cultural exchange among Albanians, Greeks and Aromanians in southern Albania shapes the use and naming of medicinal and food plants. By revealing how linguistic and social interactions influence local ecological knowledge, the research highlights the adaptability of human–plant relationships in changing cultural landscapes. These insights support efforts to document and protect ethnobotanical heritage, promote culturally sensitive conservation and guide policies that strengthen biocultural resilience and sustainable use of natural resources in the Balkans and beyond. Summary: This study explores how ecological and cultural factors shape local ecological knowledge (LEK) in the Balkans, a recognized biocultural hotspot and long‐standing reservoir of wild medicinal plants. Focusing on Albanian, Greek and Aromanian communities in the Gjirokastër region of southern Albania, it investigates cross‐cultural ethnobotanical dynamics, linguistic adaptation and processes of knowledge transmission. Data were collected through 84 semistructured interviews complemented by participant observation. Quantitative ethnobotanical indices were calculated and overlaps in plant reports and uses among the three cultural groups were analysed to assess shared and idiosyncratic knowledge patterns. Albanians contributed the largest proportion of recorded folk plant names, and medicinal applications primarily targeted gastrointestinal and dermatological conditions. The presence of Albanian folk names cited by other groups suggests linguistic borrowing, likely reinforced during the communist period. While idiosyncratic ethnobotanical knowledge was largely maintained among Greek and Albanian participants, it was considerably less preserved among Aromanians, indicating substantial cultural adaptation. The findings highlight the vitality and adaptability of shared LEK in southern Albania and point to long‐standing historical and cultural exchange in the region. The study emphasizes the importance of documenting ethnobotanical heritage to support biocultural stewardship, revitalize the regional herbal trade and promote culturally sensitive bioconservation strategies and community‐led initiatives that strengthen intergenerational knowledge transmission and socio‐ecological resilience across the Balkans.

Local ecological knowledge is an essential element of the Alpine biocultural diversity and is often linked to minority languages. However, its continuity does not necessarily correspond to the persistence of these languages. This study investigates how knowledge of wild plants (and mushrooms) is transmitted and transformed among three minority-language communities in the Italian Alps: Cimbrian, Mòcheno, and Ladin speakers. Ethnobotanical data were collected through structured interviews between 2022 and 2025 and compared with historical records from the 1980s documenting the use of wild plants for food, medicinal purposes, and herbal teas. The results reveal a marked decline in traditional plant-related practices despite the continued use and institutional support of minority languages. Plants once central to household herbal repertoires, such as Achillea millefolium L., Artemisia absinthium L., and Sambucus nigra L. which are now marginal or abandoned. However, a limited set of herbal teas remains culturally significant. Conversely, mushroom foraging and the gathering of wild fruits remain comparatively resilient, supported mainly by communal land-use institutions ( usi civici ) that foster ecological engagement and intergenerational learning. Overall, the study highlights a paradox of biocultural resilience: linguistic vitality alone does not safeguard embodied ecological knowledge. Sustaining Alpine cultural and environmental heritage, therefore, requires integrated approaches that address language, environment, governance, and socio-economic change together.