Ethnobotanical Portraits

Backgrounds

All the backgrounds for this issue of the Handbook are drawn from ethnobotanical collections made in the souk, or traditional marketplace, of Marrakech, Morocco. These baskets, fruits and cosmetic herbs are important in North African culture. / GJM

Moroccan woman creating an anklet design with henna paste in Marrakech

Leaves, sold whole or pounded into powder, come from the henna plant, Lawsonia inermis L. (Lythraceae), which is reputed to be a native of southern Iran but is commonly cultivated in North Africa an/ many other Arabic-Islamic regions. The powdered leaves, mixed with a variety of fixatives, are used to create intricate skin decorations in many countries, from India to Mauritania. In Morocco, henna is used to treat a range of skin conditions, from burns to eczema. Aline Tauzin, a French ethnologist, has written an exceptionally beautiful book in French on the use of henna in Mauritania, titled Le Henné, Art des Femmes de Mauritanie.This volume is the first in a collection of small illustrated books on women’s traditional arts and crafts co-published by Ibis Press and UNESCO.

CONTACT

Bernard Cesari, Ibis Press, 8 rue des Lyonnais 75005 Paris, France;|
Tel. +33.1.47072114,Fax +33.1.47075222,
E-mail ibispres@francenet.fr

Textures, from a basket made with leaf fibers of the dwarf fan palm, Chamaerops humilis L. (Arecaceae), which is one of only two palms native to Europe (the other is Phoenix theophrasti Greuter, the Cretan palm, an endangered species related to the date palm). Chamaerops humilis, which is found from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa eastwards to Italy and Malta, has multiple uses. Apart from being woven into baskets, the leaf fibers are made into mats, brooms and rope. The young buds are eaten as a vegetable, and the whole plant is cultivated as an ornamental throughout the Mediterranean. Its stature is an indicator of human use.

A tradtional carrying basket, typical of the Mediterranean region and North Africa, made from dwarf fan palm fibers

Though capable of producing trunks up to 4m, the palm is often stunted because of overharvesting and grazing. Teresa Almeida, a Portuguese ethnobotanist, is developing a project to promote cultivation of the dwarf fan palm, and recovery of traditional ways of weaving the leaf fiber.

CONTACT

Teresa Almeida, Departamento de Botânica, Universidade de Coimbra, Arcos do Jardim, P-3000 Coimbra, Portugal;
Tel. +35.139.822897 or 825221 or 827625,Fax +35.139.820780,
E-mail talmeida@cygnus.ci.uc.pt

Hassan Nafari harvesting dates in the Palmeraie of Marrakech, Morocco

Seeds are sometimes covered with a sweet, edible pulp such as these dates (Phoenix dactylifera L., Arecaceae) harvested in a desert oasis of Morocco. The date palm is a tall dioecious plant, reaching up to 30 m, which is typically propagated by offshoots from mature female individuals. It requires high temperatures and low air humidity for fruit setting and ripening, yet abundant ground water (from irrigation or a high water table) for growth. The date was domesticated more than 6000 years ago. It is a staple food of nomadic people in Arabia and North Africa. The Moors introduced dates into Spain, and subsequently the Spanish brought the fruit to the Americas.

You can find more information on dates and other domesticated plants on a Website created by Paul Gepts of the University of California at Davis for his course on evolution of crop plants, Website http://agronomy.ucdavis.edu/GEPTS/pb143/pb143.htm. The University of California Fruit and Nut Research and Information Center offers information on dates and many other crops.

CONTACT

UC Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center,
Department of Pomology, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8683 USA;
Tel. +1.530.7549708, Fax +1.530.7528502,
E-mail fruitsandnuts@ucdavis.edu Website http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu

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Profiles

Mariliza V. Ticsay-Ruscoe

Mariliza Ticsay-Ruscoe is program manager of the Environmental Security and Management Programme of the Institute of Environmental Science and Management (ESMP/ IESAM), University of Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). She has served as project officer and country team leader of a biodiversity study sponsored by the Southeast Asian Unversities Agroecosystem Network (SUAN). In addition to Tagalog and English, she speaks Kapampangan, a local language of Luzon.She completed a Bachelor’s of Science in biology, a Master’s of Science in botany and a Ph.D. in forest ecology, all at UPLB.

Her research has focused on how some indigenous groups in the Philippine uplands manage biological resources. Together with the Chinese ethnobotanist Xu Jianchu, she authored a booklet on The Use of Indigneous Knowledge in Agroecosystem Management for Biodiversity Conservation: A Case Study in Barangay Haliap, Kiangan, Ifugao, Central Cordillera, Philippines, published by UPLB and the Ford Foundation.

CONTACT

Mariliza V. Ticsay-Ruscoe, Environmental Security and Management Programme (ESMP), School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), University of Philippines Los Baños (UPLP), College, Laguna, 4031 Philippines;
Tel. +63.918.2608119, Fax. +63.94.5362251,
E-mail mvtr@mudspring.uplb.edu.ph /GJM

Liwayway

Liwayway, a speaker of Ambala Aeta, was born in 1952 in the forests of Mt. Dingga, Bataan Province, west-central Luzon, Philippines. An orphan at age seven, she was raised by her aunts, who served as the traditional midwives and “herbolarias” (traditional healers) of the village. At an early age Liwayway began learning about plants and their medicinal value, and she became especially interested in traditional remedies used during childbirth and “binat” or relapse. Liway, as she is fondly called, married Alfredo del Cosar, a non-Aeta from Floridablanca, Pampanga. They have four children. She and her children moved to Pastolan Village in Subic, Zambales in 1988 upon invitation of her older brother.In 1990, Liway and a group of Aetas from Pastolan Village were recruited to work for the Subic Bay Municipal Authority (SBMA). After fourteen months of volunteer services, cleaning up and rehabilitating what is now the Pamulaklakin Stream Resort, Liway was officially employed as a forest trail guide in the SBMA.

Liway has assisted several students and researchers from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños who have been carrying out ethnobotanical research in the Subic forests. In addition, she was a valuable resource person for the quantitative methods session of the People and Plants in Southeast Asia Certificate Training Course in Applied Ethnobotany, held in Subic Bay from 16 – 27 February 1998.

CONTACT

Susanah dela Rama, Head, SBMA Tourism Department,
Tel. +63.47.2524429 or 2524123 or 2527711, Fax +63.47.2523856 or 2523857,
E-mail tourism@subic.com.ph
Attn: Liwayway, Pamulaklakin Stream Resort, Pastolan Village. /MVTR

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What is this?

It is Mammilaria estebanesis Lindsay (Cactaceae), the San Esteban fishhook cactus, which is endemic to San Esteban Island in the Gulf of California. The Seri people of northwestern Mexico, who call the cactus hant iipzx iteja caacöl, eat the orange-red fruits as a snack. The illustration and ethnobotanical information are from Felger, R.S. and M.B. Moser. 1985. People of the Desert and Sea: Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Tucson, University of Arizona Press. Richard Felger, an expert on the flora and economic botany of the Sonoran Desert region, produced this ethnobotanical monograph with Mary Beck Moser, who began studying the Seri language in the 1950s. Rich in line drawings and archival photographs, the book describes many aspects of the Seri’s relationship with their desert and marine environment, including their use of hundreds of flowering plants.

It is available from :-

The University of Arizona Press, 1230 N. Park Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85719 USA; E-mail orders@uapress.arizona.edu
Website http://www.uapress.arizona.edu

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