Flowers and Fruits: Gathering Edible Wild Plants as Biocultural Heritage

Abstract

The collection of wild edible plants (PSC, in Spanish) is a practice that implies the knowledge and management of plant species by humans for gastronomic and medicinal use. In the municipalities of Querétaro and El Marqués, Querétaro, this practice was carried out in what was the wild and communal areas, however, with urbanization from the eighties due to the growth of the population and industrialization, the peasant localities have experienced an identity change going from being ejidatarias (communal areas) to periurban.

This article describes the development of the concept of biocultural heritage from studies on the relationship between biological diversity and cultural diversity that resulted in the term biocultural diversity. With this referential framework, the importance of the collection of wild edible plants (PSC) in the aforementioned municipalities will be explained, as a practice for the recovery of local knowledge and the recognition of the biocultural heritage of the area.