USE OF ECOLOGICAL METHODS IN ETHNOBOTANY:

DIVERSITY INDICES 1,2

ALPINA BEGOSSI

Begossi, Alpina (Ndcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais, Universidade Estadual de Cam-

pinas, CP 6166, Campinas, SP, 13081-970, Brazil). USE OF ECOLOGICALMETHODSIN ETHNO-
BOTANY:DIVERSITYINDICES.Economic Botany 50(3):280-289, 1996. The application o f eco-
logical concepts to ethnobotanical studies, in particular o f diversity, is analyzed. Diversity
indices are important tools that may help in understanding human-environment interactions.
Those indices allow comparisons on the use o f plants by different populations in different
environments. A review on recent major ethnobotanical journals was carried out, and 10 studies
(7from Latin America, 2 from Asia and 1 from Europe) were selected based on available data
to calculate diversity indices. The Shannon-Wiener indices and rarefaction curves were ob-
tained. High diversity on plant uses were found f o r studies carried out at Peru, Mexico, Brazil
and Thailand. A low diversity was found f o r Tonga, and island biogeography theory is used
to discuss these results. Sampling effort is evaluated through rarefaction curves. The estimation
o f the diversity o f resources used by native populations may be useful when planning conser-
vation areas and their management.

O Uso de Mrtodos Ecol6gicos em Etnobotgmica:Indices de Diversidade. A aplicafdo de conceitos

de ecologia em estudos etnobotCmicos, em particular diversidade, ~ analisada. Os (ndices de
diversidude sao ferramentas importantes que nos ajudam a enteuder as interafres humanas com
o ambiente. Esses (ndices permitem comparar o uso de plantas por populafres diferentes em
ambientes diferentes. Foi realizada urea revisao nos principais perirdicos recentes de etnobot~n-
ica e foram selecionados 10 estudos (7 da America Latina, 2 da Asia e I d a Europa), corn base
na disponibilidade de dados, para o cdlculo dos indices de diversidude. Indices de Shannon-
Wiener e curvas de rarefafao foram obtidas. Foi encontrada uma alta diversidade de uso de
plantas para Peru, Mgxico, Brazil e Tail~udia. Uma haixa diversidade foi encontruda em Tonga,
e a biogeografia de ilhas 6 usada para discutir os resultados. 0 esfor9o de amostragem ~ avaliado
com base nas curvas de rarefagao. A estimativa da diversidade dos recursos usados p o t popu-
lafres nativas pode ser util no planejamento de dreas de conserva96o e em seu manejo.
Key Words: biodiversity; diversity indices; ethnobotany; island biogeography.

Ecological concepts, models and methods
have been proven to be useful in the understand-
ing of human-environmental interactions. There
is a vast literature on those applications, such as
on carrying capacity (Fearnside 1986), on resil-
ience (Begossi 1995; Berkes and Folke 1992),
on optimal foraging theory (Begossi 1992; Be-
gossi and Richerson 1992; Hames and Vickers
1982; Hawkes, Kaplan, Hill, and Hurtado 1987;
Hill, 1988, among others) and on diversity (Be-
gossi n.d.; Begossi and Richerson 1993; Har-
Received 7 September 1995; accepted 21 February
1996.
2This study is dedicated to the memory of my friend
and collaborator, the Brazilian botanist and ethnobo-
tanist Hermrgenes de Freitas Leit~o-Filho [1944-
1996].
desty 1975). Although there has been criticism
of the use of ecological models in the analysis
of human-nature relationships (Balre 1989),
such models have provided quantitative tools
that increase confidence to the analysis of data,
and focus attention on the importance of sample
size and sampling effort.
In this study I examine the use of ecological
diversity indices for the analysis of the diversity
of resource use (in this case, plants) by different
populations from different areas. For this pur-
pose I draw upon the data from the literature,
from different parts of the world.
ECOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OR
BIODIVERSITY
The diversity of species has always been a
fundamental area of inquiry in ecology. The

Economic Botany 50(3) pp. 280-289. 1996

9 1996 by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458 U.S.A.
1996] BEGOSSI: ECOLOGICAL METHODS IN ETHNOBOTANY
study of diversity is based primarily on compar-
ative and correlative research (Huston 1994:8).
Local diversity should be correlated with fea-
tures of the environment, especially with the di-
versity of resources (Schluter and Ricklefs
1993). According to Huston (1994:16) the lati-
tudinal gradient was the pattern that first attract-
ed scientific attention to species diversity; plants
are well represented in this gradient. Alexander
von Humboldt and Aim6 Bonpland, in 1807,
were probably the first in comparing the greater
diversity found in the tropics to the temperate
areas (Latham and Ricklefs 1993). Diversity in-
dices can be used to evaluate the intensity of
resources used by human populations, to allow
comparisons among different populations in dif-
ferent environments, and to allow evaluations of
sampling effort. Diversity indices can also help
us to determine a minimum area necessary for
a native human population based on data on the
resources used. According to May (1975) spe-
cies-abundance relations form the basis for con-
siderations of species-area relations. Hence, the
abundance of individual species used by native
populations is of key importance in determining
the size of the areas used by those populations,
and has consequences for the size of conserva-
tion units such as extractive reserves. Very re-
cently, diversity indices have also been used in
archaeological studies (Wing and Wing 1995).
Many diversity indices have been discussed
in the ecological literature (Huston 1994; Pielou
1975; Rosenzweig 1995; Schluter and Ricklefs
1993). The number of species per unit area, rich-
ness, depends on sample size; the more samples
taken, the more rare species are added to the list
(Begon, Harper, and Townsend 1990). Indices of
equitability or evenness take into account both
the number of species and their relative abun-
dance (Magurran 1988). One of these, the Shan-
non-Wiener index, employed in this study, is
widely used in ecology and is regarded as hav-
ing a moderate sensivity to sample size (Magur-
ran 1988). Another form of evaluating diversity
used here is the rarefaction curve. It is derived
from sampling distributions, obtained by plot-
ting the number of species expected to be ob-
served, as a function of the number of individ-
uals in the sample [Sanders (1969) curves--see
also Simberloff (1979)].
Many quantitative methods in ethnobotanical
studies have been proposed (Johns, Kokwaro,
and Kimanani 1990; Moerman 1991), one is the
281
use value of species (Phillips and Gentry,
1993a,b; Phillips et al. 1994; Prance et al. 1987).
Carneiro (1978) used a method to evaluate the
number of species per area (species/area curve).
Diversity indices are not being suggested here
as a substitute for the methods proposed above,
but as a method that allows comparisons among
populations in different areas. Diversity indices
are quantitative tools used by ecologists in most
studies at the community level, why not apply
them to ethnobotanical studies?
Diversity indices can help us in answering at
least the following questions:
a) Does the diversity of plant use represent
the diversity of plants available? We should ex-
pect a higher diversity of plant uses in the trop-
ics, compared to temperate areas, if uses follow
the availability of plants. For this, we need to
have data on the plant diversity of the area stud-
ied; such data often are not available. Benz and
co-workers (1994) found that the floristic abun-
dance of the area studied was related to the flo-
ristic composition of plants used, in terms of
family composition. Some studies allow com-
parisons between the richness of available and
used species. Such studies include: Boom
(1990), which showed that 30% of species were
used by the Panare Indians from Venezuela;
Glover, Magogo, and Mzee (1969), which re-
ported that 47% of local species were used by
the Digo from the Shimba Hills, Kenya; and
Prance and co-workers (1987), in Amazonia,
which found that 77%, 61%, 49% and 79% of
species were used by the Ka'apor, Tembr, Pan-
are and Chficobo, respectively.
b) Are the same plants used by most individ-
uals? The calculation of the evenness may be
helpful. A low evenness means a high domi-
nance in the use of a few species.
c) Are there differences in the diversity of
plant uses per category (such as gender/age)?
Figueiredo, Leitao-Filho, and Begossi (1993)
showed in one community at the Atlantic Forest
coast (Brazil), that women and older people tend
to cite a higher diversity of plant uses than do
men and young individuals.
d) Is the sampling effort sufficient? In other
words, is the informant sample large enough to
cover a high diversity area? Rarefaction curves
help to evaluate sampling efforts.
METHODS
In order to calculate diversity indices (besides
richness), it is necessary to have data on the
282 ECONOMIC BOTANY
number of individuals who cited a plant species.
A survey on the major journals of ethnobotany
was carried out at the Economic Botany library,
Harvard University. All volumes of Advances in
Economic Botany (1-9), Conservation Biology
(1-9), Journal of Ethnobiology (1-14) and the
Journal of Herbs, Species and Medicinal plants
(1-3) were consulted. For Economic Botany and
for the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, volumes
of the most recent fifteen years were consulted.
One study (Amorozo and Grly 1988), published
in a Brazilian periodical, was obtained from one
of the authors.
The calculation of the Shannon-Wiener index
was made through the formula H' = - E pi log
pi (both base e and 10), where pi is the propor-
tion of individuals of the ith species (here the
number of citations or informants per species).
Evenness is given by H'/Hmax (Magurran 1988;
Pielou 1975). Shannon-Wiener is an information
theory index, based on the idea that diversity in
a natural system can be measured as information
contained in a message. We used the program
called Specdiv 1.3 based on Brower and Zar
(1977) which calculates many different diversity
indices.
For the rarefaction method, sub-samples of in-
dividuals of equal size are taken at random from
the total. By rarefying the samples they are
made comparable (Ricklefs 1990). The formula
is given in Magurran (1988) as:
E(S) = E{ 1 - [(Nn - pi)/(N)]},
where,
E(S) = expected number of species in the
rarefied sample
n = standardized sample size
N = total number of individuals recorded
in the sample to be rarefied
p i = the number of individuals in the ith
species in the sample to be rarefied.
For the rarefaction curves, T. Lewinsohn pro-
gram (Unicamp, Brazil) which is based on Shi-
nozaki (1963 in Mueller-Schaerer, Lewinsohn,
and Lawton 199l) was used, being pi (x axis)
sampling units (in this case, number of inform-
ants). We also used the rarefaction program from
Krebs (1989), in this case pi (x axis) being the
number of individual species cited (number of
citations of all informants).
These diversity indices are used because they
may complement each other and are well
[VOL. 50
known, widely used, and easily found in the eco-
logical literature. The Shannon-Wiener index al-
lows us to compare the diversity of plants cited
taking into consideration the relative abundance
of citations. For example, two different popula-
tions each citing 5 useful species, with a total of
100 citations, have the same diversity apparent.
However, looking at the relative abundance of
citations, we notice that one population cited the
5 species in the proportion 20:20:20:20:20, and
the other in the proportion 80:5:5:5:5, the later
showing a lower diversity or, a high dominance
on the use of plant species. The rarefaction
curves allow us to compare the diversity of plant
uses by different populations with different sam-
ple sizes (Peet 1974). With these two methods
we expect to be able to examine on a broad scale
the uses of plants by different cultures.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A few studies with the number of informants
per plant, or per plant use, were found in the
literature. Similar observations were made by
Etkin (1993) and by Johns, Kokwaro, and Ki-
manani (1990). The importance of collecting
and showing quantitative data is that they allow
more confidence in results and, allow the study
of other aspects of ethnobotany.
Most of the studies found in the literature are
from tropical areas, which show a high biodi-
versity. Seven studies are from Latin America
(three from South America), two from Asia and
one is from Europe. Some ethnopharmacological
studies showed the number of informants per
remedy (not per species) and are not part of this
study.
COMPARATIVE STUDIES AND SITES
The following descriptions include general re-
marks on the area and populations studied, and
more particular remarks on the methodology
used, in order to explain how the data were ap-
plied to calculate the indices. The abbreviations
used in figures are shown in brackets.
1) Brazil [Ba]. This study (Kainer and Dur-
yea 1992) was carried out at the Extractive Re-
serve Cachoeira, located 50 km from Xapurf, in
the State of Acre, Brazil. It is a reserve of 29 974
ha, including 68 families. The procedures in-
cluded interviewing 14 women concerning the
use of plants for food, beverages, spices, medi-
cines, animal feed, firewood, construction ma-
terials, and other uses. The percent of type of
1996] BEGOSSI: ECOLOGICAL METHODS IN ETHNOBOTANY
usage per species is shown, but more than one
use was mentioned per informant. To calculate
the diversity indices, the number of informants
per plant species was obtained from the per-
centages. When more than one use was shown
(such as food and medicine) the highest per-
centage was considered (35 cases out of 145).
Naturally, when more than one use was shown,
and one of these was 100%, we could be sure
that all informants mentioned that species. Data
are shown for 145 species (1284 individuals =
citations).
2) Brazil [Bp]. This is a study (Amorozo and
G61y 1988) on the use of medicinal plants in two
caboclo villages of the lower Amazon at Bar-
carena Municipality (Itupanema and Nova do
Piry), with about 80 families in each. Barcarena
is located about 30 km from Bel6m (Pardi State),
and the villages are located at Maraj6 Bay. In-
terviews were conducted in 10 houses from both
villages (17 informants). Data on species per in-
formant were shown for 34 plant species, cited
by more than 3 informants. One informant per
species was considered for the other 186 species.
The total number of plants species was of 220
(365 citations).
3) Catalonia [Ca]. This study (Bonet, Blan-
ch6, and Xirau 1992) was conducted in an area
of 260 km 2, with 18 000 inhabitants in the valley
of the river Tenes, near Barcelona. The area is
highly variable, allowing for different micro cli-
mates and for a rich flora. Interviews were con-
ducted with 28 elderly informants on medicinal
plants. The frequency of citation per plant use
was available for 30 species. Thirty-three plants
were mentioned by two informants and 128
plants were mentioned by one informant. For the
calculations, the frequency of uses cited per spe-
cies was summed (30 species). A total of 191
species (393 citations) were used in the calcu-
lations.
4) Guatemala. This study (Gir6n et al. 1991)
was conducted at the Municipality of Living-
ston, Department of Izabal, Atlantic Coast,
where 300 caribs were interviewed by a multi-
disciplinary team. The Municipality of Izabal
has 1940 km 2 and 18 811 inhabitants, where dif-
ferent ethnic groups are found, the Caribs being
the most frequent. The frequency of citations per
use and per plant is shown for 103 plants (1008
citations). As for other studies, when more than
one use per plant was found, the total was con-
sidered to calculate diversity. For that case, only
283
the Shannon-Wiener index was obtained from
the programs.
5) Mexico [Me]. This is a study (Benz et al.
1994) on the Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Re-
serve, Jalisco-Colima, Western Mexico, in nine
different Mestizo communities (about 100 in-
formants). The area has a high diversity, such as
2500 species of plants and 668 species of ver-
tebrates. Data on local vegetation types are
available as well as on floristic composition of
the area. Interviews included the use of plants
for food, firewood, fence posts, construction,
forage, instruments and medicines. Data on 335
plants were shown (2727 citations). The number
of reports (citations) per plant species was avail-
able.
6) Nicaragua [Na]. Medicinal plants of Ni-
caragua's Atlantic coast, by Barrett (1994). Five
communities (809 households) in the Atlantic
coast of Nicaragua were studied: Bluefields,
Rama Cay, Kakabila, Orinoco and Karawala.
The number of informants per species was avail-
able. A total of 149 plants (1659 citations) were
used in the study. The rarefaction curve could
only be obtained through Krebs (1989) program,
because of the high number of informants.
7) Nicaragua [Ni]. Also in the Atlantic coast,
this study (Dennis 1988) was carded out at
Awastara, close to Puerto Cabezas. Data were
obtained from 16 Miskito informants (23 plants,
43 citations). The number of informants per
plant is available.
8) Peru [Pe]. This study (Phillips et al. 1994)
was conducted at Madre de Dios, a Tambopata
reserve of 5500 ha. Data were gathered from
seven plots of 1 ha each, by interviewing 29
informants. Plant uses were categorized by food,
construction, commerce, medicinal, technology
and crafts. This study calculates the use value of
species and data on local vegetation is available.
The diversity was calculated from a detailed ap-
pendix, with 472 plant species (1383 citations).
9) Thailand [Th]. This study (Pake 1987)
among Hmong refugees took place at Phanat-
nikhom refugee camp, 90 km southeast of Bang-
kok. The informants were nine herbalists. Data
were shown in detail for plants mentioned by
two herbalists (20 species). Another 130 species
were mentioned by one herbalist. Calculations
included 150 species (170 citations).
10) Tonga [To]. The Kingdom of Tonga is lo-
cated in the South Pacific, close to the Fiji and
Samoa archipelagoes. Interviews with 50 Tonga
284 ECONOMIC BOTANY [VOL. 50

T A B L E 1. DIVERSITY INDICES (RICHNESS AND S H A N N O N - W I E N E R ) ON PLANT USES FROM SELECTED STUD-

IES. USE: M = MEDICINAL, G = GENERAL, VARIOUSUSES.

Diversity indices
Shannon-Wiener
Inform-
Richness (b.10)~ (b.e)2 Evenness Local Use ants Citations Sources

145 2.09 4.80 0.97 Brazil G 14 1284 Kainer and Duryea 1992
220 2.20 5.07 0.94 Brazil M 17 365 Amorozo and G61y 1988
191 2.10 4.82 0.92 Catalonia M 28 393 Bonet et al. 1992
103 1.70 3.90 0.84 Guatemala M 300 1008 Gir6n et al. 1991
335 2.24 5.16 0.89 Mexico G 100 2727 Benz et al. 1994
149 1.69 3.88 0.78 Nicaragua M 809 1659 Barrett 1994
23 1.30 2.99 0.96 Nicaragua M 16 43 Dennis 1988
472 2.58 5.95 0.97 Peru G 29 1383 Phillips et al. 1994
150 2.16 4.97 0.99 Thailand M 9 170 Pake 1987
105 1.95 4.49 0.97 Tonga M 50 2037 Whistler 1991
Base 10.
2 Base e.

herbalists were carded out and a list of 105 spe-
cies (2037 citations) with the number of inform-
ants per species is shown (Whistler 1991).
In Table 1, the Shannon-Wiener index is
shown for the communities mentioned above.
Some calculations were made using the number
of citations per species, other were based on the
number of informants, depending on what kind
of data were available. The best procedure
would be to calculate the indices with either the
number of citations or the number of informants,
for all communities. In ethnobotanical studies,
results calculated in both ways would be prob-
ably highly positively correlated: a plant men-
tioned by many informants would have more ci-
tations, too. Thus, I believe the samples are still
comparable.
The Shannon-Wiener index, which includes
both richness and evenness, is high for com-
munities from Peru, Mexico, Brazil (Pardi State)
and Thailand. The communities with a high
evenness are Thailand, Peru, Brazil (Acre State)
and Tonga (Table 1). These results show that
both Peru and Thailand were sites with a high
diversity of plant uses, in terms of both richness
and evenness. The rarefaction curves (Fig. 1, 2,
3) confirm the high diversity of plants uses at
Peru and Thailand, as well as Brazil and Mexi-
co, in spite of the different sample sizes taken
from these different populations. In Peru the
sample included the use of 472 species by 29
informants and in Thailand, it included the use
of 150 species by 9 informants (Table 1).
The community in Mexico shows a high
Shannon index and a relatively high rarefaction
curve, due to the number of species and of in-
formants (its evenness is moderate--Table 1).
For both Mexico and Peru, the authors (Benz et
al. 1994; Phillips et al. 1994; respectively)
stressed the high diversity of the vegetation in
the study sites: 9 Tambopata forest sites at Peru,
and 8 vegetation types at Biosphere Reserve in
Mexico. Low diversity indices are shown for the
populations at Nicaragua, Guatemala (a low
evenness), Catalonia, and Tonga (a low rarefac-
tion curve).
Catalonia is located in a temperate region. In
spite of a local highly diversified flora (Bonet,
Blanch6, and Xirau 1992), also expected in
Mediterranean shrub communities (Ashton
1992), we can expect a relatively low diversity
at Catalonia sites compared to rain forest sites.
The expected decrease in species diversity from
the low latitude tropics to high latitudes was
called the "master gradient of diversity" by
Whittaker (1975) and is analyzed in detail by
Latham and Ricklefs (1993).
The Kingdom of Tonga includes 150 islands
(697 km2), of which only 36 are inhabited
(Whistler 1991). According to the classical is-
land biogeography theory (MacArthur and Wil-
son 1967), the diversity of species should in-
crease according to the island area, and decrease
according to its distance from the mainland (see
Rosenzweig 1 9 9 5 : 2 1 0 - 2 6 3 for a review).
Therefore, small or distant islands should have
lower diversity than inland communities; more-
over, low diversity is expected in both far and
1996] BEGOSSI: ECOLOGICAL METHODS IN E T H N O B O T A N Y 285

600

r~ 500 Pe

ii II
/I
I
400 I

r~ Me
1
300 /
/ _._......
_+-...... -
!
Bp ..........
I/ , .."'"'"** Ca
i 200 /
/
Th
/ , . , " ~
/ ,-+
;-/Ba

IO0 ,1 ......................... TO

I,'/11~ ..................
/

H-II N l ~ i / l L / i i I N l i l t t l t l l l I I I l l I1111 I l i l l III Iq I I ] l l l l l I1111 II III ]1 III It t l l t I I I I ] 1 ] 1 1 1 1 I I I l l l l l ITqlll

O
1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 O0
NUMBER OF INFORMANTS
Fig. 1. Rarefaction curves based on the number of informants per plant. Pe = Peru, Th = Thailand, Bp =
Brazil (Par~ State), Me = Mexico, Ba = Brazil (Acre State), Ca -- Catalonia, To = Tonga, Ni = Nicaragua
(Puerto Cabezas).

600

500 ..... Pe

i~ 4O0

) 300 ///
/
/
//
/
//
/*
..Bp
./ / ~.- ~-'~- ~Ca
i 200 / / Th + . ~ " .J .............. Ba
/ ....................... ;.....................

100 ........1 ~'"

0 ,.,--,--,--,--,--,--, I I l I t I I I ] I I I I I [ ] I I I I I 1
1 5 10 15 20 25 30
NUMBER OF INFORMANTS
Fig. 2. Rarefaction curves based on the number of informants, up to 30 informants. Pe = Peru, Th =
Thailand, Bp = Brazil (Pardi State), Ba = Brazil (Acre State), Ca = Catalonia, Ni = Nicaragua (Puerto Cabezas).
286
4OO
300
r.~
i 200 ,/'/'
./
/
100
/,p,-
./ ,," J
0 I
-I 300
Fig. 3. Rarefaction curves based on the number of citations per plant. For Mexico and Tonga the curve was
calculated through both number of informants and citations (Fig. 1 and 2). Me = Mexico, Na = Nicaragua (five
communities in the Atlantic coast), and To = Tonga.
small islands. Begossi, Leit~o-Filho, and Rich-
erson (1993) and Figueiredo, Leit~o-Filho, and
Begossi (1993) collected and analyzed data on
the use of medicinal plants in two different is-
lands from the Atlantic Forest coast: B6zios and
Itacuruq~i islands. Btizios has an area of 7.5 km 2
and is located 24 km off the coast whereas Ita-
curuq~i has an area of 8.3 km 2 and is 0.8 km off
the coast. The Shannon-Wiener index for the use
of medicinal plants at Btizios is 1.47 and for
Itacumq~i 1.65 (base 10). A statistical method to
test the significance of differences between two
Shannon index is available in Zar (1984) and
Magurran (1988), and the differences were sig-
nificant (P < 0.05). A study using rarefaction
curves to compare the use of plants in 5 Atlantic
Forest coastal communities showed also a lower
diversity in the island communities (Rossato,
Leitao-Filho, and Begossi in prep.). The low di-
versity of plant uses found at Tonga may be a
representation of its low floristic diversity.
The rarefaction curves (Fig. 1, 2, 3) allow
evaluation in sampling efforts. How many in-
formants should be enough to analyze the di-
versity of plants used in a population? When
more informants are added and the curve does
ECONOMIC BOTANY [VOL. 50
.....j'""
-- IIIla
I J [ I I I I
600 900 1200 1500 1800 2100 2400
NUMBER OF CITATIONS
not continue to increase, it is because the sam-
piing was sufficient. A very good effort is ob-
served for the data collected at Tonga and Mex-
ico. Thus, the low diversity of the plants used at
Tonga is not due to incomplete sampling. On the
other hand, the comparatively low effort made
in Thailand means that it probably would show
a still higher diversity of plants used.
Peru, Brazil (Pardi), and Mexico showed a
high diversity. We should recall that the plant
uses in these areas were for general purposes,
whereas in the other areas the focus was only
on medicinal plants. The diversity of plant use
in Peru and Mexico might be partially explained
by more species being added to the list for a
variety of different uses, which is not the case
for the high diversity found at Thailand. In Thai-
land, Pake (1987) stressed the use of local plants
by people and their tenacity in retaining their
indigenous medicine as well as their low utili-
zation of Western medicine.
Brazil (Pani) shows a high diversity in spite
of a lower sampling effort, compared to the
study at Acre (Fig. 1, 2). This diversity is still
high if we take into consideration that only me-
dicinal uses were studied at Pani State.
1996] BEGOSSI: ECOLOGICAL METHODS IN ETHNOBOTANY
These indices may also help us to see the ho-
mogeneity/heterogeneity aspects on the use of
plants "inside" a population. Less intra-homo-
geneity means a high diversity of plant uses and
a high intra-homogeneity (high dominance or
low diversity) mean that just the most important
plants are being mentioned by the informants.
Thus, a low diversity on the use of plants may
signify some loss of local knowledge, assuming
that the original diversity was high. Also, an iso-
lated population living in an area with a low
floristic diversity may show a higher diversity of
plant uses in comparison with a less isolated
population that lives in an area of high diversity,
but with access to Western medicine.
Diversity indices allows us also to compare
the use of plants by different categories. For ex-
ample, Figueiredo, Leit~o-Filho, and Begossi
(1993) compared the use of plants among men/
women; fishermen/non-fishermen and old/
young, using the comparative method of Zar
(1984). Significant differences in the Shannon-
Wiener index were found for women and older
people, who cited comparatively more medicinal
plants. Women usually make plant medicines for
the children (such as syrups) and the older peo-
ple usually have a deeper knowledge of plants.
Moreover, some loss of knowledge of medicinal
plants is occurring in many communities, es-
pecially among the young generations as already
observed by Anderson (1986) in Thailand and
by Begossi, Leitao-Filho, and Richerson (1993)
at Btizios Island (Brazil).
Finally, data on the diversity of plants used
may help in the management of conservation ar-
eas. When estimating the diversity of plants
used, we can compare it to the available diver-
sity (vegetation or fioristic diversity) and get a
minimum idea of the minimum area needed for
some native populations. The estimation of min-
imum living areas are very important in order to
guarantee the survivorship of many indigenous
populations in both tropical and temperate areas.
CONCLUSIONS
Diversity indices are useful tools that help us
to ask questions and analyze ethnobotanical
data, besides allowing comparisons among dif-
ferent communities in different or similar envi-
ronments. Intra-populational comparisons, such
as among different categories, may be also
drawn from data.
The Shannon-Wiener index gives us an esti-
287
mation of the richness and evenness, whereas
the rarefaction curves allow us to compare pop-
ulations with different sample sizes and to eval-
uate sampling effort.
The results of this study show high indices for
high diversity areas, such as Peru, Brazil, Mex-
ico and Thailand. Tonga showed a low diversity,
probably reflected by its island environment.
The diversity of Thailand could be higher after
a stronger sampling effort. Thailand's high di-
versity may be the result of local resistance to
Western medicine, in addition to an expected
high local diversity (no data on local biodiver-
sity is available from that study).
It is important to have quantitative studies in
ethnobotany reporting data on informants, be-
cause those data can be very useful for macro
scale comparisons. These macro scale studies
are particularly important when we observe that
both biological and cultural biodiversity are se-
riously threatened in many parts of the world.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to the grant received from FAPESP-Brazil, which covered
all my travel expenses and made possible my stay at Harvard University,
Botanical Museum and Herbaria, in June-July 1995, where this study
was undertaken. I thank the CNPq-Brazil for a research scholarship. I
thank Silvia C. Rossato for helping me with all diversity computer pro-
grams and Efraim Rodrigues for a careful reading of this manuscript. I
thank Paulo Moutinho for ideas while studying ants (Master's thesis,
Unicamp). I am grateful to the Economic Botany Library at Harvard
University, for helping with facilities for this study, including computers,
and to Donald Pfister, Director of Harvard Herbaria. Finally, I am es-
pecially thankful to Prof. Richard E. Schultes, Director Emeritus of the
Botanical Museum at Harvard, for this special opportunity of collabo-
ration and also for kindly reviewing this manuscript.
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BOOK REVIEW
Major Weeds of Mongolia. R. K. Malik and D. Tsedev.
1996. Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unit-
ed Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caralla, 00100
Rome, Italy. ix + 101 pp., illus. (paperback). Price
not given.
In my mind, Mongolia is a mysterious place. Mention
of it conjures up visions of yak butter, nomadic herdsman,
and the original collection of a dinosaur egg in the Gobi
Desert. Botanists and agriculturalists know so little of
Mongolia that we are fortunate to have this small, attrac-
tively produced book with high quality printing.
The plan of the book is simple. For each of the 41
species, there are English and Mongolian common
names, a short technical description in both English and
Russian, phenology, distribution, related species, and con-
trol measures. While several herbicides are noted, I was
encouraged to find several non-chemical control measures
recommended. Different aspects of the plants are pic-
289
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stability-time hypothesis. Pages 71-81 in G. M.
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Springfield.
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University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
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free method of expressing and estimating diversity.
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Faifland.
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339-372.
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Inc., Englewood Cliffs.
tured. The quality of the original pictures is not always
excellent. A glossary of terms in English and Russian
and an index (inexplicably only in English) conclude the
book. I could not find callus, lyrate or nut in the glossary
but the remainder of the terms are included with clear,
simple wording.
Most of the weeds will be familiar to North American
botanists with such genera as Agropyron, Amaranthus,
Arena, Chenopodium, Cirsium, Elymus, Euphorbia.
Plantago, Polygonum, Potentilla, and Taraxacum repre-
sented.
In recent years, FAO has produced helpful guides to
the weed flora and control of weeds. This latest is a com-
mendable addition and will be essential to anyone inter-
ested in the flora and agriculture of Mongolia.
LYTTONJ. MUSSELMAN
DFJ'ARTMENTOF BIOLOGICALSCW24CES
OLD DOMINIONUNIVERSrrY
NORFOLK,VA 23529-0266