Ethnobotany of Samtskhe-Javakheti, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus

Abstract

Samtskhe-Javakheti was formed in the 1990s in southern Georgia from the historical provinces of Meskheti, Javakheti and Tori. The majority of the inhabitants are ethnically Armenian, with a Georgian minority. We documented traditional plant use in Samtskhe-Javakheti, and hypothesized that (1) plant use knowledge in general would be higher in isolated high elevation communities, and that (2) use of home gardens would be much more restricted to lower elevations. Fieldwork was conducted July–August 2013, July–August 2014, and September–October 2015, using semi-structured questionnaires. We encountered 261 plant species belonging to 161 genera of 70 families being used in the region. Of these, 160 species were exclusively wild-collected, 81 grown in homegardens, and 20 were both grown in gardens and collected wild. Most species and uses were widely used across the region, with some particular species in the low lying villages, that allowed a wider variety of species to be grown and gathered. The elevation of informant community significantly fit the ordination in plant-space and use-space. In addition, community significantly fit the ordination for both plant-space and use-space. Informant age significantly fit the plant-space ordination only, while informant gender was not significant in either space.