12 Edible Indigenous South African Plants

12 Edible Indigenous South African Plants

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Generally, the potential of many indigenous fruits is underexplored, especially in the area of their basic botany, horticulture, food science, and economic value [10,11,12,13]. Indigenous fruits have the potential to provide the necessary phytonutrients required in the diet for food-nutrition security and the income of rural communities where the cultivation of the popular fruit species is not common [14]. In the warmer temperate regions of the globe, an indigenous fruit tree that stands out with a rich source of phytonutrients is the Strychnos spinosa [15]. It is one of the most important edible indigenous fruit trees in the wild. The fruit-bearing species of Strychnos belong to the family Loganiaceae. The tree has the capacity to stay edible in tropical heat, which is an important characteristic for food and nutrition security, as this will enhance availability and productivity [16,17,18].

The first comprehensive documentation of Colombian useful plant diversity was conducted by Pérez-Arbeláez (1978), who catalogued 1771 species, including hundreds of edible species. Subsequently, Romero-Castañeda (1991)31 contributed extensively to the knowledge of Colombian edible fruits, cataloguing 167 species. In the following years, various taxonomic and ethnobotanical studies disclosed an even greater portion of the diversity of native edible plants, as well as their uses and socio-cultural values (Cf. Medina et al. 201932;33,34,35,36,37,38,39). However, despite such valuable efforts, information on Colombian edible plants is still scarce. For instance, according to29, agricultural studies have been carried out on less than 20% of Colombian wild fruits. This constitutes a significant limit to the formulation of conservation-through-use strategies. Moreover, most ethnobotanical studies, being focused on a narrow portion of geographic locations, are not geographically representative of the entire Colombian territory. Indeed, the academic coverage of this topic leaves significant geographic gaps, an example of which is the almost total deficiency of research carried out in the Caribbean region29.

Colombian edible plants are divided into 219 families and 1389 genera. Table 1 summarises the 20 most important families (i.e., containing the highest number of species). These include Fabaceae (119 genera/351 species), Asteraceae (86/136), Poaceae (72/140), Arecaceae (55/180) and Rubiaceae (52/137). However, if only native species are considered, families such as Melastomataceae (14/119), Malvaceae (35/91), Moraceae (18/74), Annonaceae (14/66) and Myrtaceae (11/61), obtain greater relevance. Important genera comprise Inga (84 spp.), Passiflora (73), Miconia (63) Solanum (61), Pouteria (54), Protium (33), Annona (32) and Bactris (28). Genera such as Ficus, Diospyros and Garcinia, known to be among the most species-rich genera for edible plants at the global level2, are not significantly rich in edible species in Colombia. On the other hand, genera such as Passiflora, Inga, Bactris and Pouteria are characterised by a high number of edible species and may represent a new frontier for ethnobotanical and bromatological studies in the country.

Colombian edible plants comprehend a great variety of growth forms, from trees to herbs, climbers, and epiphytes. Trees constitute the most dominant habit in terms of species richness, with more than 1500 species, followed by herbs, shrubs, and climbers. Growth habit highly reflects edible plants biogeographic distribution across various ecoregions (Fig. 3). Some of the most important tree genera include Inga (64 spp.), Pouteria (49), Miconia (39), Protium (32), Annona (27), Ficus (21), Casearia (21) and Matisia (20). On the other hand, important herbs comprehend Solanum (30), Cyperus (16), Miconia (14), Oxalis (11) and Eragrostis (11). Predominant genera for shrub species include Miconia (54), Solanum (33), Bactris (25), Casearia (20), Piper (15) and Senna (15). Finally, most important genera for edible climbers comprise Passiflora (64), Ipomoea (15), Dioscorea (15), Paullinia (14) and Solanum (12).

The distribution of Colombian edible plants per department is showcased in Fig. 2. Results highlighted the department of Antioquia as the most diverse in terms of species (Fig. 2D), genera (Fig. 2C) and families (Fig. 2B), counting 43 696 individual georeferenced records (Table 2). Following it, the departments of Cundinamarca, Boyacá and Meta showed similar trends, totalling 49 359, 9192 and 8330 occurrences respectively (Table 2). On the other hand, departments such as Cesar, Arauca, Vichada and Guainía ranked last both in terms of species richness and number of occurrences, with no more than 1800 georeferenced records individually. Due to the complete absence of georeferenced records of edible plants, the department of San Andrés y Providencia was not included in the resulting figures.

Distribution of Colombian edible plants by growing habit: (A) tree species, (B) shrub species, (C) herb species and (D) climbing species. The four distributions show relatively congruous trends, with high species concentrations across the Andean region. Generated in R 4.1.0. -project.org/.

Grid analysis revealed several hotspots for edible species diversity across the country (Fig. 4). Both the Species Richness (SR) and Weighted Endemism (WE) analysis emphasised the northern and north-western Andean region as crucial repositories of edible species (Fig. 4A, B). In particular, the highest SR was recorded between the areas of Antioquia, Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Caldas, which extend across three distinct bioregions: the Andean dry forest, humid forest, and páramo. In contrast, the Corrected Weighted Endemism (CWE), emphasising areas that are characterised by a high proportion of species with restricted distributional ranges, displayed a more scattered distribution of numerous restricted hotspots (represented by dark brown cells in Fig. 4C). A considerable density of narrow-distribution edible plants was recorded in the Amazonian bioregions, in the departments of Amazonas, Caquetá and Vaupés, as well as in the departments of Guainía, Nariño and La Guajira, in the proximity of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Diversity patterns of Colombian edible plants. (A) Species richness (SR) map; (B) Weighted Endemism (WE) map. (C) Corrected Weighted Endemism (CWE). Generated in ArcGIS Pro 2.9.0.

Results of the present taxonomic analysis are partially in line with what Diago and García29 found: according to these authors, the richest families of edible wild fruit species in Colombia were Fabaceae, Arecaceae, Passifloraceae, Sapotaceae, Moraceae and Melastomataceae. If we consider the totality of Colombian edible plants, results concerning the most important families (i.e., Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae, Arecaceae, Rubiaceae) differ quite significantly. However, if we only take native edible species into account, results align, highlighting Fabaceae, Moraceae and Melastomataceae as some of the most significantly rich families in edible species. This inconsistency highlights the fact that in Colombia most of the introduced species come from a small number of families, including Fabaceae, Poaceae, Arecaceae. Not surprisingly, these families are among the most important ones for the number of cultivated species, both at the national and at the global level3. As the predominance of some introduced cultivated species suggests, the Colombian population has progressively moved away from native foods over the last decades29. Numerous native species became NUS due to the progressive transformation of Colombian peoples and their traditional cultural heritage following the advent of European conquerors60 and the country's gradual introduction into the globalized trade market of natural products27. Today, Colombian gastronomy reflects this country's complex history, with European and African influence from the times of the colonisation, mixed with the rich indigenous cultural heritage and local biodiversity61.

These results are consistent with what49 reported on the distribution of useful plants across Colombian bioregions: while exhaustive sampling in areas such as the Andean region allows the comprehensive understanding of the edible flora of the Andean humid forest, the Andean dry forest and the Páramo bioregions, the regions of Caribe and Llanos (Cf. Fig. 1), to date, remain largely unexplored. This represents a substantial gap to the reliability of the present figures.

By disclosing the richness, diversity, and potential of Colombian edible plant diversity, and identifying current knowledge gaps at the geographic level, the present analysis constitutes a strong empirical basis for directing further research efforts targeting least explored areas of Colombia. The in-depth characterisation of Colombian edible plant resources is important to achieve their effective protection, to guarantee their survival and to encourage their recovery and valorisation. This process requires the joint forces of numerous disciplines, ranging from taxonomy, biogeography, ethnobotany and bromatology, together with the generation of more complete and detailed information on the population size, distribution range and threats monitoring of species100. This study has contributed to the preliminary characterization of edible plant resources in Colombia both from a taxonomic and biogeographic perspective. At the taxonomic level, Colombian edible plants cover an unrivalled variety of families, genera and species, many highly localised. Thanks to its unique and diverse natural ecosystems, as well as to their exhaustive sampling, the Andean region scored the highest number of edible species. On the other hand, regions like the Amazon, the Caribbean, and Llanos still remain poorly explored from a scientific standpoint and should therefore be prioritised for future, focussed research. 153554b96e

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