Traditional Use of Wild Edible Plants in Slovenia: A Field Study and an Ethnobotanical Literature Review

No comprehensive research has been conducted on the traditional use of wild-grown edible plants in human nutrition for the Slovene ethnic area so far. In the literature on edible wild plants, authors often draw information about their use from foreign or international sources, such as books and databases, from which it is often unclear what people in different countries really include into their diet. Therefore, our purpose was to determine which edible wild-growing plant species have been used in Slovenia on a traditional basis. In our research, we gathered data using different methods. The data obtained from the literature review, i.e., the ethnobotanical literature and traditional cookbooks, were combined with those derived from the online sources and a field survey. This enabled us to create a database of 219 plant taxa encompassing more than 500 species from 62 families that are traditionally used in Slovenia. The most frequently represented families were Asteraceae, with 28 taxa, Rosaceae, with 22 taxa, Lamiaceae, with 18 taxa, Brassicaceae, with 17 taxa, Apiaceae, with 16 taxa, and Amaranthaceae, with 10 taxa. Plants are most often boiled, blanched, stewed or roasted, sometimes also baked in an oven or raw with additives, such as sour cream, sugar, salt or vinegar, but seldom fried. Selected traditional cookbooks and ethnological books provided good insight into the past use of wild plants, while an online and field survey enabled a comparison of their past and current state of use. The survey has shown that some very old wild plant recipes are still used within certain local communities, while younger people, influenced by new books about wild cuisine, are constantly introducing new plant species and recipes into their diet thereby establishing new traditions.