USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR (U.S. Agency for International Development Grant No. LAC-0605-GSS-7037-00) Fourth Progress Report 15 October 1989 - 15 Apri 1 1990 Bradley C. Bennett, Ph.0 Institute of Economic Botany The New York Botanical Garden Bronx, New York 10458-5126 212-220-8763 TABLE OF CONTENTS FIELDWORK ....................................................1 SHUAR MANUSCRIPT ............................................. 2 MANUAL PREPARATION ...........................................2 CLASSIFICATION ...............................................3 RELATED PROJECT WORK ......................................... 4 RELATION WITH MUSE0 ECUATORIANO .............................. 4 FINANCES .....................................................5 FUTURE PROJECTS ..............................................5 APPENDICES ...................................................7 APPENDIX A .USEFUL PLANTS OF THE SHUAR MANUSCRIPT ...... 1 APPENDIX B .USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR ....... 183 APPENDIX C .LETTER FROM DIOSCORIDES .................. 234 APPENDIX D .SAMPLE MANUSCRIPT TREATMENTS BIXACEAE ......................................... 236 MALVACEAE ........................................ 239 APPENDIX E .ILLUSTRATIONS ............................ 246 APPENDIX F .USEFUL PLANT CLASSIFICATION .............. 316 APPENDIX G .VARIATION IN COMMON PLANT NAMES AND THEIR USAGE AMONG THE SHUAR IN ECUADOR .............. 322 APPENDIX H .ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ETHNOBOTANY ................................... 340 APPENDIX I .FUTURE PROJECT PROPOSALS DEVELOPING EXTRACTIVE RESERVES IN ECUADOR ........ 349 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND NATIVE PLANT UTILIZATION AMONG QUICHUAS AND COLONISTS IN NAP0 ............. 360 PROMOTION OF NATIVE PLANT RESOURCES IN ECUADOR ... 372 MANAGING ECONOMIC PLANTS IN ECUADOR'S NATIONAL HERBARIUM ........................................ 375 USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 1 FOURTH PROJECT REPORT (15 OCTOBER 1989 - 15 APRIL 1990) In this report we describe the fourth six month's progress of the @@Usefulplants of Amazonian Ecuador ProjectM directed by the New York Botanical Garden's 1istitute of Economic Botany. The primary objective of our research, which is supported by U.S. Agency for International Development Grant No. LAC-0605-G-SS- 7037-00, is to prepare a manual on Amazonian Ecuador's useful plants. This reference will incorporate data from our fieldwork, herbarium studies, and ethnobotanical publications. This data is vital if Ecuador and other tropical countries are to develop sustainable agricultural programs and fully benefit from the tropical rain forest's diversity. A second objective, nearing completion, is a study of the useful plants of the Shuar. Other goals are to prepare a preliminary database, train Ecuadorian students, and to assist Ecuadorian research organizations. FIELDWORK. Dr. Bradley C. Bennett (IEB and MECN), Srta. Patricia Gomez (CONACYT) and Sr. Efrain Freire (MECN) travelled to the Shuar Centro Yukutais in February 1990. They collected 130 species in primary, montane forest near Yukutais. Most of these were previously uncollected. This brings the total number of plants collected in Yukutais to more than 1000. Informants knew the names of about 80% of the recently collected plants and provided uses for more than half of these. We've not completely sampled the flora of Yukutais. Nonetheless, the February trip was our last major collecting trip for this project. We could USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 2 continue fieldwork for several years but we feel obligated to complete a preliminary report on the useful plants from this region. This precludes additional fieldwork in the immediate future. SHUAR MANUSCRIPT. We've completed most of a manuscript on Shuar ethnobotany. Within the next year we will receive determinations of the plant voucher specimens and proceed with the publication of this document. Based on the determinations that we have received to date, we have information on the following number of taxa. FAMILIES ........................................ 118 TAXA IDENTIFIED TO DIVISION ......................... 34 FAMILY .......................... 223 GENUS ........................... 257 ..........................................................SPECIES ......................... 307 NUMBER OF TERMINAL TAXA ............................. 821 Some of the 821 taxa not yet identified to species will no doubt be duplicates of already-collected species. We estimate that the 821 terminal taxa represent about 725 species. The Shuar manuscript appears in Appendix A. MANUAL PREPARATION. At present we have common names and usages for 1855 taxa representing 152 plant families. Of the 1855 taxa 450 have not yet been identified to species. We therefore estimate that the manual will include about 1750 good species. The number of taxa is shown below. A list of the taxa USEFTJL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 3 to be treated in the manual appears in Appendix B. FAMILIES ............................................ 152 TAXA IDENTIFIED TO FAMILY GENUS ........................... 372 ..........................................................SPECIES ........................ 1405 NUMBER OF TERMINAL TAXA ............................ 1855 Dioscorides has offered a contract to publish the manual (Appendix C). Bennett asked 10 ethnobotanical and taxonomical authorities for their comments on a sample description from the manual (Appendix D). None of the authorities felt that the descriptions were excessive. Nonetheless, wefre looking for places to reduce the manuscriptfs length so that the published version will be more affordable. Dioscorides has requested an $11,000 supplement to lower the final price of the book. We presently have only $4000 allocated for publication costs. The 69 illustrations prepared to date are included in Appendix E. Alejandro Suarez is preparing additional illustrations. About 200 of these will appear in the manual. CLASSIFICATION. A classification of the useful plants is presented in Appendix F. There are 18 major categories; the more important ones are divided into one or two levels of subcategories. Indices based on these categories will help users of the manual quickly find information. RELATED WORK. In February Bennett presented a paper entitled "Variation in plant names and uses among the Shuarw at USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 4 the First Ecuadorian Ethnobotany and Economic Botany Symposium in Ecuador. He also participated in a panel discussion on the future of ethnobotany and socioeconomic development in Ecuador. His paper on the Shuar research and contribution to the panel discussion, lvEconomicand Sociologic aspects of Ethnob~tany~~will be published in the proceedings from the conference. These papers appear in Appendices G and H. Bennett also presented a summary of the u:S. A. I. D. supported research at the United Nations Development Program meeting in Quito. With the help of Douglas McMeekin, an environmental consultant working in Ecuador, Bennett arranged a collaborative project with Unocal. Unocal will provide the logistic support for botanists to work out of the company's Tiguino base camp in the Pastaza Province. U.S. and Ecuadorian scientists will collect plant voucher specimens and plant material for chemical analyzes at oil well sites being cleared by Unocal. RELATIONSHIP WITH MUSE0 ECUATORIANO DE CIENCIAS NATURALES. We continue to build a cooperative relationship with the Ecuadorian Museum of Natural Sciences (MECN). We provided six months of the salary for a herbarium technician and money to buy supplies. The Museum recently named Dr. Bradley Bennett a honorary assistant curator of the National ~erbarium. We are presently looking for additional cooperative projects with the Museum. FINANCES. Through the careful use of research funds and supplements from other grants we have money remaining at the end USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 5 of the grant's original two year tenure. A one year no-cost extension was recently approved by Washington. The original grant allocated $12,000 for training of Ecuadorian students. A previous U.S. A.I.D. grant to the New York and St. Louis Botanical Gardens also allocated money for student training. Twc 1 students were brought to the U.S., one studied at New York and the other at St. Louis. Both returned to Ecuador but are no longer working directly in botany. We therefore thought it more prudent to give broader training to more students. Dr. Bennett taught an ethnobotany course for the School for Field Studies last summer. U.S. students paid $2000 each for tuition and room and board. Four Ecuadorian students attended the class at no cost. Bennett will teach the course again this summer and has invited 8 Ecuadorians to attend. Ecuadorian students will therefore receive $24,000 of training at no cost. In addition, three students have received field and herbarium training for periods of at least six months. F'UTURE PROJECTS. Our immediate goal is to complete the Shuar study and the Manual on Ecuador's Useful Plants. Because of lowland Ecuador's incredible diversity this manual will be an incomplete one. We hope to continue documenting the uses of plants by Ecuador's native people and will seek funding to do this. In addition we have four other projects we 'd like to consider for Ecuador. Our data does little good unless we can find ways to implement its use. The four projects we would like to consider are: USEFUL PLANTS OF AMAZONIAN ECUADOR - 6 1. DEVELOPING EXTRACTIVE RESERVES IN AMAZONIAN ECUADOR 2.