Irene Teixidor Toneu

Natural History Museum, Norway · Botanical Garden

As an Indigenous community of Algeria and the broader Sahel, the Tuareg hold unique ecological knowledge, which might contribute to broader models of place-based climate change impacts. Between January and April 2019, we carried out semi-structured interviews (N=23) and focus group discussions (N=3) in five villages of the province of Illizi, Alger...

Foraging wild food plants is sometimes perceived as a conservation threat or, alternatively, as an opportunity for sustainable development. Little is known of how foragers themselves define and ensure sustainable foraging. Here, we collaboratively assessed the activities and motivations of the forager community in Norway in order to achieve a combi...

The global market of the medicinal plant ginseng is worth billions of dollars. Many ginseng species are threatened in the wild and effective sustainable development initiatives are necessary to preserve biodiversity at species and genetic level whilst meeting the demand for medicinal produce. This is also the case of Panax vietnamensis Ha & Grushv....

Studies of European trade have largely focused on bulk commodities, ignoring minor products. The Danish Soundtoll Registers Online (STRO) document the North-Baltic Seas maritime trade from the 16th century to the 19th. They are an untapped resource to understand the trade of plant products. Here, we present an overview of plants recorded in the STR...

Differences in gendered knowledge about plants are contingent on specific cultural domains. Yet the boundaries between these domains, for example food and medicine, are sometimes blurred, and it is unclear if and how gender plays a role in creating a continuum between them. Here, we present an in-depth evaluation of the links between gender, medicin...

Wild edible plants as culturally-appropriate sources of nutrition and for food security are now well-recognised. In Europe, the use of wild edible plants is shifting from a subsistence activity to an emerging trend in high-end gastronomy. The environmental impacts of this shift are poorly known. Foraging is increasingly popular for personal consump...

In this paper, past plant knowledge serves as a case study to highlight the promise and challenges of interdisciplinary data collection and interpretation in cultural evolution. Plants are central to human life and yet, apart from the role of major crops, people–plant relations have been marginal to the study of culture. Archaeological, linguistic,...

The promotion of responsible and sustainable trade in biological resources is widely proposed as one solution to mitigate currently high levels of global biodiversity loss. Various molecular identification methods have been proposed as appropriate tools for monitoring global supply chains of commercialized animals and plants. We demonstrate the eff...

As interest in including local communities and their knowledge in biodiversity conservation increases, challenges to do so become clear. One of them is to harmonize local and academic assessments of conservation status. Here, we document the culturally valuable flora of two Amazigh communities in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains and contrast local...

The promotion of responsible and sustainable trade in biological resources is widely proposed as one solution to mitigate currently high levels of global biodiversity loss. Various molecular identification methods have been proposed as appropriate tools for monitoring global supply chains of commercialized animals and plants. We demonstrate the eff...

Most literature on Amazigh (Berber) in Morocco and in the Journal of North African Studies revolve around historical, social and political issues. Literature also covers issues of Berber cultural recognition, linguistic identity, and colonization. However, little is known of the ethnobotanical knowledge associated with the traditional way of life t...

Introduction : In southern Morocco, medicinal plants are mostly used by women but their knowledge about plants is poorly documented. This work aimed to study the use of medicinal plants in traditional medicine by women and compare this with herbalists from the city of Agadir, southern Morocco. Methods : A survey was conducted with 73 housewives an...

This chapter looks at cultural practices of conservation in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. It focuses on two rural communities who inhabit the cultural landscapes of this mountainous region and finds that most conservation practices are associated with agriculture, food, pastoralism, and soil and water management. These multifaceted practices...

The Danish Soundtoll Registers Online (STRO) are valuable sources to study the Baltic Maritime trade between the 16 th and 19 th centuries. Previous studies largely focused on historical development in Europe and bulk commodities traded, whereas ethnobotanical research on plant trade remains underrepresented. Here, an overview of all plants recorde...

From the “Norwegian Flora” (eighteenth Century) to “Plants and Tradition” (twentieth Century): 200 Years of Norwegian Knowledge about Wild Plants. Much ethnobotanical knowledge is documented through history in books of various kinds, which allow diachronic studies of plant use. These texts can also contribute to investigate plant knowledge transmis...

Plants are living repositories of pharmacologically active chemicals and help to meet society's health care needs directly, or by providing natural products for drug development. We describe phylogenetic approaches to compare medicinal floras from different cultures in distinct regions of the world, and consider how these findings can improve knowl...

Ethnopharmacological relevance Very few studies examining quantitatively gender differences in the knowledge and use of medicinal plants exist for the Arab world. Differences in ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants between men and women in Jeddah are explored here for the first time. Aim of the study Our study aims to document urban medici...

The Maghreb, the north-western tip of Africa, is a geographically, floristically, and culturally rich area with a long history of animal husbandry. Local ethnoveterinary practices reflect Maghrebi beliefs about health and illness, as well as ecological knowledge of the farmers, nomads and other pastoralists. Ethnoveterinary medicine in the Maghreb...

The promotion of responsible and sustainable trade in biological resources is widely proposed as one solution to mitigate currently high levels of global biodiversity loss. Various molecular identification methods have been proposed as appropriate tools for monitoring global supply chains of commercialized animals and plants. We demonstrate the eff...

Ethnopharmacological relevance Ethnoveterinary medicine is vastly under-documented, especially in North Africa, where livestock care is increasingly medicalised. Despite evidence of the interdependence of ethnoveterinary practices and ethnomedicine for human care, the overlap between these two systems and the possible drivers of similarity are rare...

This study is the first ethnobotanical investigation of Tuareg communities from the region of Illizi in the Algerian Sahara. The study aims to highlight the unique floristic diversity used in their traditional medicine. Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted with 120 Tuareg nomads, mostly old and illiterate men, using free listing and structured int...

This study is the first ethnobotanical investigation of Tuareg communities from the region of Illizi in the Algerian Sahara. The study aims to highlight the unique floristic diversity used in their traditional medicine. Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted with 120 Tuareg nomads, mostly old and illiterate men, using free listing and structured int...

Human life depends on plant biodiversity and the ways in which plants are used are culturally determined. Whilst anthropologists have used phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) to gain an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the evolution of political, religious, social and material culture, plant use has been almost entirely neglected. Me...

The ability of the subtropical North Atlantic to sustain export production despite the lack of available nutrients is fascinating. Subtropical gyres are expected to expand under a global warming scenario, so it is important to understand the mechanisms supplying the required nutrients. Current issues for the region concern the nutrient and metaboli...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: This study is the first ethnobotanical survey focusing on the herbal medicines traditionally used by the nomadic community of the Algerian steppe, identifying new medicinal plants and uses from one of the most characteristic indigenous populations in Algeria. Moreover, the study contributes to the understanding of t...

In the original publication [1] were the Arabic letters in Table 2 incorrect. The corrected version of Table 2 can be found as Additional file 1 in this Erratum.

Background This study explores medicinal plant knowledge and use among Muslim women in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Ethnobotanical research in the region has focused on rural populations and male herbal healers in cities, and based on these few studies, it is suggested that medicinal plant knowledge may be eroding. Here, we document lay, female...

Background Although most Moroccans rely to some extent on traditional medicine, the practice of frigg to treat paediatric ailments by elderly women traditional healers known as ferraggat, has not yet been documented. We describe the role of these specialist healers, document the medicinal plants they use, and evaluate how and why their practice is...

This dataset describes medicinal plants used in a poorly studied area of Morocco: the High Atlas mountains, inhabited by Ishelhin people, the southern Moroccan Amazigh (Berber) ethnic group, “An ethnomedicinal survey of a Tashelhit-speaking community in the High Atlas, Morocco” [1]. It includes a comprehensive list of the plants used in the commune...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Traditional knowledge about medicinal plants from a poorly studied region, the High Atlas in Morocco, is reported here for the first time; this permits consideration of efficacy and safety of current practices whilst highlighting species previously not known to have traditional medicinal use. Aim of the study: Our...