Research Article |
Corresponding author: Nello Biscotti ( nellobisco@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Lorenzo Peruzzi
© 2018 Nello Biscotti, Daniele Bonsanto, Gennaro Del Viscio.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Biscotti N, Bonsanto D, Viscio GD (2018) The traditional food use of wild vegetables in Apulia (Italy) in the light of Italian ethnobotanical literature. Italian Botanist 5: 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.5.22297
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In this work, we present a summary of an ethnobotanical research carried out in the whole Administrative Region of Apulia (southern Italy). The main topic of the investigation is the traditional knowledge about wild plants, focusing on their common names, on which parts were used in cooking and how they were used. The main aim was to establish a botanical knowledge about these culinary uses through a systematic identification of the species involved, directly in the field. In addition to this, we focused on the ecological aspects of these species and on their biological and chorological forms. Results suggest the existence of very strong ties between the local communities and this particular flora, without substantial differences between rural and urban areas or among different zones of the Apulia Region. On the other hand, in each area we found peculiar food uses, species, parts used, and recipes. The analysed wild plants still have a fundamental role in the local diet, which can predominantly be ascribed to the Mediterranean model. Moreover, we documented an increasing interest in the culinary uses of these species: in the Gargano area, for instance, more and more cultivations of Salicornia perennans subsp. perennans are underway thanks to the demand coming from restaurants. In total, we documented 214 taxa (58 families) and at least 19 of them are enduring components of the local diet. Nineteen species represent a high number, considering that the tertiary sector is nowadays predominant in Apulia (73.5 % of the local GDP, compared to 73.2 % in Italy as a whole). Furthermore, the total amount of wild species used as food is the highest in Italy, according to the Italian ethnobotanical literature. On the same basis, we were able to draft a national checklist of 539 taxa documenting the taxonomy of the wild plants involved in traditional food use in Italy, categorized by regions. In conclusion, this work shows that the available literature regarding the Italian territory provides only a partial representation of traditional food uses, even though they are widespread throughout the country. Consequently, this tradition remains to be thoroughly investigated.
Ethnobotany, Wild Food Plants, Apulia, Italy
The first major botanical work on the spontaneous Italian flora traditionally used for food purposes dates back to the 1980s (
Ethnobotanical research work in Apulia is still scarce and even less is known about food uses. What we know is due to very few studies (
Apulia (Figure
The tertiary sector is nowadays predominant in Apulia (73.5 % of the local GDP, compared to 73.2 % for Italy as a whole), followed by the secondary industry (14.4 % of the local GDP compared to 12.2 % for southern Italy and 18.5 % for the whole country) (
In our investigations, we explored the entire Regional territory over a period of six years (2011–2017) examining 15 different communities, here defined as learning areas, at the same time. They are representative of the eight economic-territorial systems of the region (Figure
In the background the Apulian districts: Gargano (C1), Tavoliere delle Puglia (C2), Dauni Mountains for the province of Foggia (C3); Land of Bari murgiana (C4) and Terra di Bari (C5) for the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani and Bari; Valle d’Itria (C6) and Salento for the province of Brindisi and Lecce (C7); Ionic tarantine arch for the province of Taranto (C8). In the foreground red areas the study areas (15) for each district.
The plant species that the informers told us about were identified according to
We analysed all the species that are traditionally used for culinary purposes, including those which are no longer used, but that can still be easily found in the literature and in oral testimonies. The recorded species are listed in the supplementary Suppl. material
For a deeper understanding of the findings, we consulted the ethnobotanical bibliography that considered food uses in Italy. Apart from the database of
Based on data listed in the supplementary Suppl. material
The species traditionally used in Apulia can be classified in 214 taxa, 201 specific and 13 subspecific (Suppl. material
From a chorological point of view, most of the species are Steno-Mediterranean (26 %) and Euri-mediterranean (23 %). Strikingly, we found 67 species used only in one learning area. Seventy-four taxa are widely known throughout the Region, as expressed by their Frequency of Citation, and at least 19 of them are used in all the districts. Therefore, each community has followed very different paths in the process of using plants for food while the few species used everywhere [Asparagus acutifolius, Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC., Muscari comosum (L.) Mill., Papaver rhoeas L., Helminthotheca echioides (L.) Holub, Scolymus hispanicus Desf., Sonchus asper (L.) Hill, Urospermum picroides (L.) F.W.Schmidt] can now be acknowledged as the most characteristic food species for the Apulian tradition. Moreover, it is on a culinary level that biocultural differences proved to be stronger: what really differentiates the communities, in fact, is the role of the food taxa, e.g., whether it is used in association with pasta, with meat or with bread. We found many unique preparations here, such as the use of wild greens as ingredients of eel-based [Taraxacum sect. Obovata, T. sect. Erythrosperma] or lake fish-based [Sonchus maritimus L., Tripolium pannonicum (Jacq.) Dobrocz. s.l.] soups.
Culinary uses are many (around 20) and varied, as further proof of the great experimentation conducted in the search for raw materials and new recipes by the people inhabiting this land. Most commonly, they boil mixtures of plants, either alone or with stale bread (“pancotti”), and then dress them with abundant olive oil. In Monti Dauni (near Foggia), these mixtures are accompanied by fried bacon. The association of some of the recorded species [e.g., Sonchus asper, Diplotaxis erucoides (L.) DC., Urospermum picroides, Foeniculum vulgare Mill. subsp. piperitum (Ucria) Coutinho, Scolymus hispanicus] with homemade pasta is remarkable. We can now say that this fundamental association is very likely the basis of Apulian cooking. Indeed, one of the most characteristic dishes here is a type of pasta (“orecchiette”) with broccoli raab.
Meat is widely used in recipes with wild plants too: for example, young leaves of Eryngium campestre L. are cooked with lamb. Furthermore, people use leaf stalks of Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn. in a veal stew, bulbs of Muscari comosum in lamb or goat casseroles, and leaves of Urospermum dalechampii (L.) F.W.Schmidt with sheep (local name of the recipe: “u callaridde”). Legumes are part of several recipes as well: fava beans, for instance, are cooked with Sonchus asper or Urospermum picroides. Dried beans, instead, are found in recipes having leaves of Taraxacum sp.
Finally, we documented a very common use of boiled Salicornia fruticosa L. and Salicornia perennans subsp. perennans either alone or as side dish in fish recipes. Recently, interest towards Salicornia sp. (salicornie, in Italian) has risen dramatically, especially in the Gargano area. We recorded other relevant uses of plants in fried recipes and omelettes. Wild greens are also stir-fried with olive oil and chilli, or roasted. For instance, shoots of Smyrnium olusatrum L. or young shoots of Orobanche crenata Forssk. are fried alone, while leaves of Cichorium intybus L. are fried with garlic and onion. On the contrary, leaves and young aerial parts of Dioscorea communis (L.) Caddick & Wilkin and Asparagus acutifolius, and bulbs of Muscari comosum are main ingredients of omelettes. Leaves of Papaver rhoeas and Rumex acetosa L. are stir-fried with olive oil and chilli in Salento (local name of the recipe: “Paparina infuocata”). Tubers of Asphodelus ramosus L. or cloves of Oxalis pes-caprae L. are substitutes for potatoes in casseroles and roasts. Bulbs of Allium ampeloprasum L. are roasted, either directly or in hot ashes. Wild plants are commonly used as ingredients for salads or eaten raw as a snack with bread [leaves of Helosciadium nodiflorum (L.) W.D.J.Koch, Allium ampeloprasum, Cerinthe major L., Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Diplotaxis viminea (L.) DC., Podospermum lacinatum subsp. decumbens (Guss.) Gemeinholzer & Greuter, Portulaca oleracea L., Reichardia picroides (L.) Roth, Rorippa sylvestris (L.) Besser, Sonchus asper, Smyrnium olusatrum, Poterium sanguisorba L., Seseli tortuosum L., Dioscorea communis]. Leaves of medicinal plants (Ruscus aculeatus L., Dioscorea communis), even those containing toxic compounds, are ingredients of soups and fried recipes (mostly they are stir-fried with olive oil and chilli). For example, young shoots of Clematis vitalba L. and C. flammula L. are used as food in the areas of Foggia and Bari and inthose of Lecce and Taranto, respectively.
From our literature survey, we report as unique the use of eating the stem marrow of Silybum marianum raw with salt, as usually done with celery. Several recipes listed here are fundamental to Apulian cooking and very often they are consumed during religious holidays, to which the local communities are still strongly tied. In general, the custom of using wild plants as food remains alive and it is very common to see wild plant-harvesters selling their “products” on the roadsides and in the local markets, mostly in the Foggia area, but also around Bari and Brindisi. These vendors are called “terrazzani” (
According to the informers we interviewed, consumers’ fear of a residual presence of pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture (flatlands around Foggia, Bari, Barletta, and Brindisi) is now a major factor in the reported lowering of wild plant harvesting. We also observed a reduction in the number of wild plants caused by the modernization of cropping patterns. Several wild species have found “refuge” in urban habitats, therefore becoming a fundamental part of the urban flora. However, it is still common to see (Gargano, Monti Dauni, Murge, Salento) people harvesting wild plants along the roadside and in wheat fields.
In Apulia, dialect names for plants are diverse, and can vary between neighbouring communities. Strikingly, 19 different local names were recorded for Borago officinalis L.: borrascine, burrasciana, burraccèlle, burraccedde, burrascina, burraccia, burracchia, burrascene, borracce, burracce, ferrascene, murraine, pezze de iarde, sucamele, verrascene, vorraine, vurraine, vurrascene, and verrascene, and 18 for Muscari comosum: ampascioni, bambasciale, bembascioele, cipudduzze, embasciole, jampasiune, lampascione, lampasciune, lambasciune, lambagione, lambascione, pampasciune, lembascione, pampascione, pampasciulu, pampascene, vambasciule and vampasciuli.
In our literature survey, we found a large number of species used for food throughout Italian Regions. However, only four (Table
Scientific name | Regional frequency |
---|---|
Borago officinalis L. | 20 |
Cichorium intybus L. | 20 |
Portulaca oleracea L. | 20 |
Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. | 20 |
Papaver rhoeas L. | 19 |
Sonchus oleraceus L. | 19 |
Taraxacum sect. Taraxacum | 18 |
Urtica dioica L. | 18 |
Asparagus acutifolius L. | 17 |
Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Medik. | 15 |
Clematis vitalba L. | 15 |
Humulus lupulus L. | 15 |
We noted that 241 taxa (44 % of the total) are used, each one, in just one Region, as a further proof of the extremely diversified culinary uses of wild plants in Italy. The number of taxa for each Region is shown in Fig.
We also observed several peculiarities in terms of species and culinary uses: for instance, in Friuli Venezia Giulia Equisetum arvense L. and E. telmateia Ehrh. are used as components of mixtures. Leaves of Asplenium ruta-muraria L. are cooked with corn flour and eaten accompanied by milk. Interestingly, leaves of Ficaria verna Huds. (a toxic species) are eaten raw in salads (
The flora traditionally used for food purposes in Puglia on the chorological level, is consistent with the flora of the region (
Compared with other regions, Apulia shows a higher percentage of geophytes (Fig.
Groups C1 to C8 include districts belonging to different geographical areas. It is only in the group on the right (C1, C2, C3) that we have districts of the same area (Foggia) (Fig.
The wild plants are usually harvested in grasslands and arid scrubs that once were forests and then pastures, as we personally noticed by accompanying the informers. Nowadays, these areas frequently exhibit the features of grasslands of Asphodelus ramosus (= Asphodelus microcarpus Salzm. et Viv.); recently they have been included in the new Charybdido pancratii-Asphodeletea ramosi class (
People who still harvest and eat such plants are primarily the elderly. In our interviews, though, we documented a rising interest for these plants also among the 40- to 60-year olds. There is no interest at all, instead, amongst younger people (< 25) to such an extent that this knowledge could very likely be lost in the future, as already noted in the European ethnobotanical literature (
Worthy of mention is the existence of the “terrazzani”, who are representatives of communities made of very poor people that make ends meet by harvesting wild natural products (fruits, wild greens, mushrooms, snails, and bushmeat).
In our interviews, we documented a gradual lowering in the number of species used as food: people no longer eat 30 of them, but do remember eating them in the past. Ten species are not even remembered by the interviewees, but are clearly documented in literature (
Nowadays, consumers consider wild plants as supplementary components in recipes that also contain cultivated plants, as already pointed out in the ethnobotanical literature of the Mediterranean area (Hadjicambis et al. 2008). In Apulia, however, wild and cultivated plants in the common sense are not distinguished from one another: they are the same, at least from a cultural point of view (
Here, these species have always been part of the local diet (
It is worth mentioning that the food use of Clematis vitalba has been previously reported in several Regions of northern Italy (
It is noteworthy that the largest gap between previous and current ethnobotanical knowledge is, among Italian regions, for Apulia (Fig.
Among Italian regions, Piemonte, Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Aosta in northern Italy and Puglia, Sicilia, and Sardegna in southern Italy are homogeneous (Fig.
Finally, the total count of 828 food units for Italy may be doubtful because of the lack of updated investigations on a national scale. In our opinion, this number is merely an approximation. According to our methodology, wild plants used as food would then be 539 taxa (only 300 according to
Table
Our investigation highlights the fact that culinary use of wild plants has still a strong tradition in Apulia not only in the rural population, but it is widespread all over the territory. Moreover, the use of some species and the respective culinary preparations characterise each area, thereby representing a fundamental part of the local gastronomy. We also observed that a common knowledge about these uses does not exist: in fact, only 19 of the 214 food taxa examined are used in all eight districts. In addition, wild greens are sold as common vegetables in several towns; they are as important as cultivated ones in constituting the Mediterranean diet that characterises this Region, thanks to a tradition that has historically been giving value to these products. In our opinion, a better knowledge about food use of wild species can only be gained through a systematic analysis, such as the one reported here.
Our results point to the existence of a rich and diversified tradition in Italy, as expressed in the numerous culinary preparations. The species having a proper use as food in the various Italian Regions can be grouped in 539 taxa, excluding fruits and aromatic plants. Ethnobotanical research is increasingly becoming fundamental to explore the TEK, also expressed by the local names of plants. This field of study is crucial if we want to preserve the dialects that people in Italy are progressively forgetting and, accordingly, the associated knowledge about food use of wild vegetables.
The results of this investigation conducted in Apulia can prove that food use of plants in Italy has been only partially documented:
1. several territories still have to be thoroughly explored in this sense (e.g., areas in the Alps and Apennines, rural and suburban areas);
2. further investigations on a regional scale are needed;
3. there is a need to update and verify the existent literature, as well as to uniform the methods of investigations in order to obtain more homogeneous data.
Notwithstanding, a rich literature about the cultural, gastronomic, economic, and agronomic value of wild vegetables is nowadays available. However, little has been done to exploit their potentialities. Several authors of ethnobotanical studies have been calling for new initiatives to preserve and promote these uses. Therefore, the successful domestication of “salicornie” in the Gargano area and its commercial success is of great interest.
The authors wish to thank all the farmers and informers, especially the local botanists and researchers, who were fundamental to the execution of our investigations in Apulia. Furthermore, we also wish to thank Prof. Gianni Bedini for his useful observations in the preparation of this manuscript.
Tables S1, S2, S3
Data type: Document PDF
Explanation note: Table S1 (Learning areas divided by territorial district), Table S2 (Wild vegetables gathered and consumed in Apulia region) and Table S3 (Wild food plants of popular use in Italy by regions (Checklist)).