Ethnobotany, Traditional Knowledge, and Diversity of Wild Edible Plants and Fungi: A Case Study in the Bandipora District of Kashmir Himalaya, India

This study explored the diversity of traditional knowledge, collected data on utilization, and identified and analyzed the wild edible plants and fungi of Kashmir Himalaya (India). Information was collected by interviews with 113 individuals during 2012–2014 from nine rural and mountainous areas. Data were classified as cooked vegetables, salads, spices, chutneys, herbal teas, home-made alcoholic drinks, soups, raw fruits, and underground snacks. Information was analyzed using use reports (UR), use values (UV), informant consensus (Fic), fidelity level (FL), and cultural importance index (CI) metrics. In total, 111 phytotaxa, distributed into 87 genera and 43 families, were identified as local edible resources. Overall, 94.25% of angiosperms, 3.45% gymnosperms, and 2.30% of cryptogams were documented as being used traditionally. Several taxa were highly cited (Amaranthus caudatus, Angelica archangelica, Asparagus racemosus, Berberis lycium, Fragaria vesca, Hippophae rhamnoides, Oxyria digyna, Juglans regia). Frequently used parts were young leaves (19.82%), fruits (15.32%), young twigs (9.01%), roots (8.11%), and tubers (6.31%). The most usage was mentioned for leafy vegetables (27.93%), followed by raw fruits (22.52%), herbal teas (14.41%), salads (9.91%), alcoholic drinks (6.31%), and snacks (4.50%). The high fidelity scores and informant consensus factors suggest that ethnobotanical knowledge could potentially guide the search for developing new nutraceutical products in the future.