Comfrey and Buttercup Eaters: Wild Vegetables of the Imereti Region in Western Georgia, Caucasus

The use of wild greens is an important issue in gastronomic ethnobotany as in some parts of the world, wild greens have been widely used to supplement human nutrition (Bharucha and Pretty 2010 ; Cruz-Garcia and Struik 2015 ; Johns 1990 ; Leonti 2012 ; Serrasolses et al. 2016 ; Turner et al. 2011 ). One of the places where the use of wild vegetables has been sparsely documented until recently, in spite of the incredible richness of their use, is the area of the Caucasus. Some uses of wild vegetables in this area are recorded by older Russian and Georgian sources (see for example Grossgejm 1952 ; Javakhishvili 1986 ) and a few general ethnobotanical studies were made recently (Bussmann et al. 2014 , 2016a , b , 2017a , b ; Hovsepyan et al. 2016 ), whereas Kaliszewska and Kołodziejska-Degórska ( 2015 ) studied the use of wild vegetables in Dagestan (North Caucasus, Russian Federation). However, no such studies have been conducted in the Imereti region. We document the use of all the wild greens, which are predominantly used in a dish called —which according one of the Georgian transliteration rules (Romanization system for Georgian link 2017 ) is written pkhali (though in some texts it is also written pxali, phkhali, phali, or pchali). This dish is of great importance in the culinary tradition of Georgia, especially its western part, and is eaten almost on a daily basis. Pkhali is also made with cultivated vegetables such as cabbage ( Brassica oleracea L.), beetroot ( Beta vulgaris L.), or spinach ( Spinacia oleracea L.), but the consumption of pkhali made of wild vegetables, so called veluri pkhali (wild pkhali) or mindvris pkhali (field pkhali), is equally common. Pkhali constitutes the main form of consumption of wild greens in the area and is served as a side dish. The term mkhali , the literary version, is often used as well, while pkhali is its synonym in the local dialects of Imereti, Guria, and Racha (Lomtatidze et al. 1962 ). As a large number of species are used in the dish, some of them of little known edibility, it is of scientific and economic importance to document the plants used.