Wild plants used for food by Hungarian ethnic groups living in the Carpathian Basin

In the last two decades several comprehensive surveys and reviews were performed in many European countries on wild plant use. Wild plants formed important parts of our ancestors’ diet in a multitude of ways (e.g. as bread ingredients, vegetables, fruits, spices, snacks or beverages); essential in severe times, supplementary otherwise [1–3]. Revitalization of traditional practices is timely for ecology, economy and nutrition biology. Nevertheless, even though Hungary is no poorer in traditions of wild plant use than other parts of Europe, no broad-scale review has been undertaken for Hungary in this respect, yet. Information on the human consumption of wild plant species is widely scattered among the ethnographic and botanic literature, mostly in Hungarian language. Publications on gathering economy, traditional nutrition, shepherding, forest goods utilization, and on the hunting-fishing-gathering “pákász” lifestyle in the former wetlands of the floodplains of the large Hungarian rivers are known from the end of 18th century on (e.g. [4]), and they became frequent from the second half of the 20th century. Publications of traditional research on medicinal uses of plants [5–8] and ethnobotany [9–11] also mention wild food plants, but a review concentrating on wild food plants is still missing. In this work we systematically review and compile information on the utilization of wild food plants in the Hungarian speaking regions of the Carpathian Basin from the Hungarian ethnographic and ethnobotanical publications. Our study aims at compiling a knowledge base on wild food plants consumed in Hungary and by the Hungarians living in other countries of the Carpathian basin, containing information on the species, as well as the modes of use. As the Carpathian Basin is dominated by alluvial floodplains located on the margin of the vast Eurasian steppe regions, Hungarian traditional plant use might also include previously undocumented usage of wetland and steppe plant species, which can potentially add some new aspects to the existing knowledge on traditional plant use in Europe.


Introduction
In the last two decades several comprehensive surveys and reviews were performed in many European countries on wild plant use.Wild plants formed important parts of our ancestors' diet in a multitude of ways (e.g. as bread ingredients, vegetables, fruits, spices, snacks or beverages); essential in severe times, supplementary otherwise [1][2][3].Revitalization of traditional practices is timely for ecology, economy and nutrition biology.Nevertheless, even though Hungary is no poorer in traditions of wild plant use than other parts of Europe, no broad-scale review has been undertaken for Hungary in this respect, yet.
Information on the human consumption of wild plant species is widely scattered among the ethnographic and botanic literature, mostly in Hungarian language.Publications on gathering economy, traditional nutrition, shepherding, forest goods utilization, and on the hunting-fishing-gathering "pákász" lifestyle in the former wetlands of the floodplains of the large Hungarian rivers are known from the end of 18th century on (e.g.[4]), and they became frequent from the second half of the 20th century.Publications of traditional research on medicinal uses of plants [5][6][7][8] and ethnobotany [9][10][11] also mention wild food plants, but a review concentrating on wild food plants is still missing.
In this work we systematically review and compile information on the utilization of wild food plants in the Hungarian speaking regions of the Carpathian Basin from the Hungarian ethnographic and ethnobotanical publications.Our study aims at compiling a knowledge base on wild food plants consumed in Hungary and by the Hungarians living in other countries of the Carpathian basin, containing information on the species, as well as the modes of use.As the Carpathian Basin is dominated by alluvial floodplains located on the margin of the vast Eurasian steppe regions, Hungarian traditional plant use might also include previously undocumented usage of wetland and steppe plant species, which can potentially add some new aspects to the existing knowledge on traditional plant use in Europe.
Mountains in Central Europe.Containing an extensive transitional zone between European deciduous forests and the Eurasian steppe biome the study area harbors a particularly diverse vegetation, which is also acknowledged by the European Union by classifying the majority of this region into a singular biogeographic zone, the Pannonian biogeographic zone.
The periphery of the Carpathian Basin including the Carpathians can be characterized mostly by and alpine and subalpine vegetation, coniferous forests, which turn into broadleaved deciduous forest at lower elevations.The central part of the basin is dominated by continental forest-steppes, although only remnants of salty and sand steppes had survived to date.Gallery forests and wetlands on the floodplains of the two large rivers, Danube and Tisza, and their tributaries played a determining role in vegetation development and also in people's lives till their regulations in the second part of the 19th century.Presently their former area, as well as the majority of former steppe vegetation, is dominated by agriculture [12].The flora of Hungary consists of 2600 species including many steppe species, whereas the flora of Transylvania is also about 2600 with significant proportions of boreal and alpine species [13].The Carpathian Basin altogether harbors 3360 species.In addition to the dominant Eurasian, continental and European species, southern, submediterranean and Balcanic elements amount to 20%.
As a consequence of Hungarian history, there are Hungarian ethnic groups living in all countries of the Carpathian Basin.Due to ecological, historical and economic reasons, ethnicities separated from the mother country often preserve their traditions better, even archaic ones, so researchers prefer to conduct ethnographic and ethnobotanic studies among Hungarians living in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Croatia.

Research history
Historical records on the use of wild plants in Hungary are known since the Medieval period (16th century).Herbal knowledge of wise women and monks, and works of former botanists as Clusius (1526-1609), Beythe (1532-1612), Kitaibel (1758-1817), Borbás (1844Borbás ( -1934)), and Dégen (1866-1934) are usually reviewed by ethnographers studying the gathering economy of the Carpathian Basin.Detailed records on edible plants from the end of the 18th century, can be found in the manuscript diaries of Kitaibel, reviewed recently by Molnár [4].Rapaics [14] had published an overview on the history of food plants, going back to pre-Medieval times.
A complete list of former publications can be found in the reviews of Gunda [15,16], a key person of ethnographical research of gathering economy in Hungary.Reviews of folk nutrition [17][18][19] generally include more or less detailed overviews of wild plants collected for food [9,[17][18][19].Plants consumed during famines were studied by Rapaics [14], Györffy [20], Gunda [15,16], and Molnár [21].The published studies collectively cover almost the entire Carpathian Basin, the most thoroughly explored regions being Transylvania [sensu lato, including e.g.Gyimes (Ghimeș) and Máramaros (Maramureș)] and the southern foothills of the Northern Carpathians [Nógrád, Heves, Borsod, and Zemplén counties as well as the Gömör (Gemer, Slovakia) region].Nevertheless, not all papers provide a comprehensive ethnobotanical "wild food plant" survey of the studied regions -there are several papers, where the focus is on other aspects of traditional living, with only sporadic mention of a few wild plants.
The oldest source is from the end of the 18th century [4]; the most recent ones are up-to-date ethnobotanical surveys collected in Ghimeș, Transylvania and Hortobágy, Hungary [11,74,75].In addition to local traditional plant names, most publications also mention the official Hungarian and/or the scientific (genus or species) Latin names of the food plants, even though these identifications can be easily mistaken if the local traditional names are similar to the official Hungarian name of another taxon.Such misidentifications are unfortunately typical in a part of the ethnography literature, nevertheless a good botanical knowledge, the descriptions of the plants discussed (if supplied), and the comparison of the different sources can effectively help to correct misidentifications [79].In our work we corrected all obvious misidentifications which could be easily corrected, and omitted all records which were clearly invalid, but no unambiguous correction was available.Nevertheless, most of the species are mentioned in several publications, which reduces the uncertainties, particularly in the case of plant uses which were also documented by botanists.
In the reviewed papers we focused on plants which were collected from the wild and consumed as food or food ingredient (including spices, beverages, occasional snacks, etc.).This definition excludes medical plants (consumed only for their health impacts), and plants collected only for non-food use (e.g.dye, timber, etc.).On the other hand, we included gathering from spontaneous populations of escaped and naturalized cultivated plants and non-native invasives.

Results
We found altogether 235 plant species belonging to 67 families which were mentioned from the study area.We found 216 species in the literature survey, whereas contemporary Hungarian botanists (34 data providers) mentioned 91 taxa (the overlap between the two sets was 71 species).The species are listed in detail in Tab. 1 with their local names as mentioned in the sources, and their documented modes of usage.In order to provide an indicator for record uncertainty, species data published only by ethnographers are marked with "*" in Tab. 1.
We found that it is the species of the Rosaceae family (36 species) which are consumed most often; other frequently used families include Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Liliaceae (sensu lato, before the APG division of the family), Fabaceae and Apiaceae.The list contains 36 trees, 27 shrubs, 4 dwarf shrubs and 169 herbaceous species.Green aboveground parts (leaves, young shoots, buds, and sometimes the whole plant) of 98 species were consumed (mainly Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Liliaceae).Flowers of 39 species (mainly Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, and Lamiaceae) and fruits/seeds of 74 species (mainly Rosaceae, Grossulariaceae, and Ericaceae) were eaten.Underground parts -roots, rhizomes, tubers, bulbs -of 23 species (mainly Liliaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae, and Brassicaceae) were used.Saps of 8 species and dried saps (resins, gums) of 4 species were consumed or chewed.In several cases two or three parts of the same species were consumed, e.g.Rosa gallica: flowers, fruits, leaves; Fagus sylvatica: fruits, leaves and sap; Sambucus nigra: flower, fruit; Taraxacum spp.: leaves, flowers; Fragaria spp.: fruits and leaves.

Green vegetables
Green parts -mainly young spring shoots or young leaves -of 51 species were prepared raw for salad, or cooked for use in soup or sauce.Species used in most regions include Rumex acetosa, Urtica dioica, Humulus lupulus, Ranunculus ficaria, and Allium spp.Larger leaves are often used in regional dishes as a wrapping for some meaty stuffing, e.g.Armoracia rusticana, Tussilago farfara and Fallopia spp.Young shoots of Typha spp.and Phragmites australis used to be consumed as a salad in the Sárköz region of Hungary, a tradition abandoned long time ago.Sixteen species including Anthriscus cerefolium, Glechoma hederacea, Thymus spp., and Verbena officinalis were used as spice, pickling or preservative.Satureja alpina as a spice is mentioned from the early 18th century.The green parts of several plants were used to prepare a refreshing tea or as syrup (e.g. a "pine honey" made from the buds of Pinaceae species); more interesting uses include making candy from Melittis melissophyllum [76], or Fagus leaves.Babies unable to suck were fed with pressed nettle (Urtica) sap (I.Németh personal communication).Some species (e.g.Oxalis acetosella, Galium verum) were used in the past as curdling agents.Herdsmen chewed Plantago lanceolata leaves in order to clean their teeth (I.Németh personal communication.).Eating Lemnaceae species in famine is mentioned only from the Drava floodplain.

Flowers
Even though sucking nectar and eating flowers or inflorescences is a widespread and delightful occupation of children, major food or beverage products are rarely made from flowers.As an exception, flowers of Sambucus nigra or Robinia pseudacacia are commonly used for making refreshing drinks or fried into pancakes they can serve as popular dishes.Unique is the use of inflorescences of Carlina acaulis as a green vegetable.Flowers of Humulus lupulus and Robinia pseudacacia were added to sourdough in many places.In Gömör, there used to be a tradition of making "flower wines" from Robinia or Taraxacum flowers ("pimpóbor") [50].

Fruits and seeds
Eating and processing wild fruits of many species is a widespread, still a living tradition in Hungary.Fragaria, Sambucus, Rubus, Crataegus, Vaccinium, Ribes, Rosa spp.and Cornus mas have been eaten fresh, baked into cakes, prepared as beverages, or dried for a later use for long time.With the advent of cheap sugar additional preservation techniques became available including syrup and jam production [17].Some fruits (Malus, Pyrus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Streptopus amplexifolius) were collected unripe; they were ripened in the attic, in hay, or in the sun.Formerly cider and vinegar were fermented from the fruits of Malus sylvestris.A traditional fruit brandy called "pálinka" is traditionally distilled after fermentation from many fruits even today.To improve taste and color fruits and spices can also be added to "pálinka" after distillation ("ágyaspálinka").Fruit cider and brandy production was particularly important in regions without extensive grape productions.In Gömör cider was fermented from almost all wild fruits.Rarely consumed fruits include Streptopus amplexifolius, Viburnum spp.and Cornus sanguinea, which are considered slightly toxic by some sources but were still documented as consumed by trustworthy publications.Several dry fruits (nuts and seeds) were also widely collected.In addition to the nuts being still economically significant (Corylus avellana, Juglans regia, and Castanea sativa), Fagus sylvatica seeds were also eaten raw or roasted.Ground Fagus acorns, as well as Quercus acorns after leaching, were also used as coffee substitutes and flour in famine times.In addition to acorns, famine flour ingredients also included dried and ground Crataegus, Rosa and Trapa fruits, Glyceria seeds and Corylus buds.According to Kitaibel's data from the end of the 18th century, oil was pressed from Sisymbrium altissimum, Brassica nigra, and Fagus sylvatica seeds.Staphylea pinnata nuts used to be a kids' snack; cooked unripe fruits of Daphne mezereum were used as black pepper substitute in the time of Kitaibel, at the beginning of the 1800s.Carum carvi used to be a widespread spice not only for dishes, but also for palinka and tea.Food and wine were coloured, e.g. with Phytolacca americana; while shiny seeds, e.g.Vicia spp.and Lathyrus aphaca were used for decorating cakes.

Underground parts
Underground parts of of several wild plants were among the most important staple foods during famines.Bulbs, tubers or rhizomes of Alisma plantago-aquatica, Bolboschoenus Rubus idaeus L. málna, mána, malina, mánafa, málnafa FRU, VEG FRU: eaten raw; jam, syrup, wine, brandy (palinka) was made of it; also put into brandy (palinka); fruits were conserved in syrup.VEG: tea was made from leaves.
[ Tab. 1 (continued) maritimus, Butomus umbellatus, Crambe tataria, Filipendula vulgaris, Phragmites australis, Sagittaria sagittifolia and Typha latifolia were known as important famine foods.Crambe tataria and Typha latifolia were reported to be preferred to bread as a staple food by some herdsmen even in normal times [60].
Collecting and eating Lathyrus tuberosus tubers used to be a widespread practice after ploughing.Polypodium vulgare and Glycyrrhiza rhizomes were generally consumed as kids' snacks and used as a sweetener.Tubers of Chaerophyllum bulbosum and Helianthus tuberosus were important wild vegetables eaten raw and cooked.Acorus calamus and Gentiana roots were used as pálinka spices; whereas Cichorium intybus roots can serve as a coffee substitute, still in use Transylvania [74].

Tree saps
Tapping trees for sap used to be a common practice in the forested regions of Eurasia.Saps from Betula pendula, Quercus cerris, Carpinus betulus, Ulmus spp.and Acer pseudoplatanus trees were generally drunk raw.Carpinus betulus, Fagus sylvatica and Juglans regia trees were also tapped in Transylvania.Betula pendula sap used to be an important commercial item sold in larger quantities at markets as a refreshing beverage, a medicine or a curdling agent.Quercus cerris sap was an important water source for herdsmen where spring water was scarce.Oaks giving the best sap were tapped permanently with built-in elder tubes; some trees were visited for drinking for 20 years.The dried resin of Picea abies, Larix decidua, Prunus cerasifera and Cerasus avium was used for chewing.This was not only useful for cleaning teeth, but also for stimulating the production of saliva, which was needed for spinning.

Social aspects of the gathering activities
Wild food plants, especially fruits, were collected both for own use or for sale.Unwritten laws regulated gathering.Signing an area rich in blueberries or strawberries, or a wild fruit tree, or arriving first in the gathering day, anyone could reserve the fruits for himself [16].According to a documented tradition [48], families without horses were allowed to do gathering in closer to the village than families possessing horses.Horses knew their job, they followed their owners with baskets on their backs.Gathering traditions went from generation to generation in communities, sometimes in families.Jam making from Sambucus ebulus was a community activity among German-speaking people till the 1930s, like jam-making from Rosa canina in some villages; this latter tradition exist even today (e.g. in the village Szarvaskő), but more as a tourist attraction.
It was also noted that some people were ashamed that they need to eat green leaves, and were unwilling to speak about it, since gathering ("nettle-eating") was often regarded as a sign of poverty in some communities [9].Teachers coming from an urban environment also influenced children to give up snacking on wild plants: in a documented case children have to write down 500 times "grass is eaten only by ruminant beasts" as a punishment [50].

Discussion
The diverse natural vegetation of the Carpathian Basin was a rich source of wild food plants.The consumption of wild plants was of different magnitude and economic significance in different periods and different regions, depending both on the natural characteristics of the landscape and the socio-economic background and tradition-preserving ability of the families or communities.The importance of gathering activities changed in parallel with the areal loss of natural vegetation and with socio-economic changes.The greatest changes occurred in the lowland floodplains, where traditional gathering, fishing and hunting activities provided livelihood for many people.After the extensive drainage of the floodplains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the utilization of wild food plants dropped dramatically.The two main reasons behind this transition were the reduced availability of the most important wetland plants and the new economic opportunities in the transformed landscape dominated by arable fields, which rendered gathering unnecessary, and left no time for such activities [16,32,35].The tradition of consuming wild food plants could survive for a longer time in forested and mountain regions unsuitable for agricultural production, where the proportion of natural vegetation was larger.In such regions there were several documented cases of people actively consuming 20-30 species even in the middle of the 20th century (e.g.[27,36,50,74,75]).Snacking of wild fruits, flowers, and raw wild vegetables survived longest among herdsmen and children.
Today, the gathering and consumption of wild plants is increasingly becoming popular and fashionable activity again.Factors behind this process include health-conscious nutrition as well as the worsening economic situation experienced by many.Some species e.g.Allium ursinum, A. scorodoprasum, Sambucus nigra, Ranunculus ficaria, Rosa canina, Prunus spinosa, Rubus, Crataegus, and Urtica spp., are appearing in markets as sources for fashionable "nature products".Gathering wild plants for sale is generally a seasonal subsistence activity of the poorest people -e.g.gypsies or elderly people.Under harsh economic conditions the consumption of wild goods becomes a matter of survival.There always have been (and there are still) places, where indigent families made use of everything "presented by the Creator in his endless good will since the beginning of times" [63].

Tab. 1 (continued)
FLO -flowers, inflorescences, sometimes only petals or nectar; FRU -fruits or seeds; n.d.-no data about local names in the sources; SAPliquid sap of trees; SAPs -dried forms of saps (resin or gums); SUB -subterranean parts (rhizomes, roots, bulbs, tubers); VEG -leaves, shoots, buds, sometimes the whole plant.* Uncertain identification (species inclusion in the list is based only on ethnographic sources).† Plant (the consumed part) is mentioned to be poisonous by some sources.
More traditional forms of gathering activities can also be a living tradition today.Among Hungarians living in Transylvania the traditional use of wild plants have continued till today in many places.There are settlements, where more than 30-40 wild species are used in everyday life [74,75], and wild fruits (e.g.Fragaria, Vaccinium spp.) are commonly sold in markets.
Comparing Hungary to Mediterranean (e.g.Spain and Italy [1,2]) and to the countries north of Hungary (Poland [3,80,81], Slovakia [82], Estonia [83]) there are some striking similarities and differences.Use of most wild fruits and seeds, as well as the little importance of wild greens is similar to that of Poland, Slovakia and Estonia.Similar to several Mediterranean countries, the consumption of the members of Liliaceae is high in Hungary.
A specific feature of the traditional plant use of the Hungarians is the mass consumption of the underground parts of some wetland species, particularly Typha spp.but also Phragmites, Sagittaria, Alisma, Butomus, and Bolboschoenus.Another Hungarian characteristic is the widespread consumption of some continental steppe species, reaching the Great Hungarian Plain from the east, most notably Crambe tataria, Rumex pseudonatronatus and the endemic Armoracia macrocarpa.The traditional knowledge of these plants might have arrived into the Carpathian Basin with the Hungarians coming from the Eurasian steppes in 896 AD.The Turkic origin of the common names of several species (e.g."tátorján": Crambe tatarica, "bojtorján": Arctium lappa, "gyékény": Typha latifolia, "som": Cornus mas, "katáng": Cichorium intybus) suggests that these species might have been consumed before the Hungarians settled in the Carpathian basin.Interestingly, there are no records of Hungarians using some species (e.g.Aegopodium podagraria, Alliaria petiolata, Sonchus oleraceus, Lactuca serriola, Stachys palustris) common in the Carpathian Basin, which are important wild vegetables in other European countries, Poland, Germany, Spain or Italy [1][2][3][79][80][81][82][83][84].

Conclusions
We reviewed 71 papers and manuscripts summarizing information on the use of 236 species.Although we did our best to find all relevant papers, it is still necessary to search for further literature, and, particularly, to perform additional field data collection in order to record the traditions still surviving in some regions.One might ask: is it not too late?Does the knowledge on wild food plants and their traditional use still exist?As a few contemporary field studies testify, there is some hope left.There are places where this kind of traditional knowledge still exists, and even new species or new uses for old species can be documented.There are hints that this knowledge may exist also in other regions, and some communities consciously revitalize ancient traditions for economic or other reasons (e.g. the production of rosehip jam as a community activity in Szarvaskő village).But the erosion of traditional knowledge on wild food plants is very fast.
There are several regions where no research on this topic was ever pursued, (e.g.Hanság, Zselic, Mecsek, Balaton region); and the traditional wild plant use of non-Hungarian ethnic groups living in Hungary (e.g.Germans) would be also worth to explore.Exploring and documenting this form of traditional ecological knowledge is an important part of conserving cultural heritage.Lessons on sustainable interactions between nature and human communities can become an important source of information in an uncertain and energy scarce future [85].In addition to serving as a basis for novel business opportunities, traditional forms of wild plant use can also improve the cohesion and resilience of local communities.

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Map of the study area including the geographic names used in the text.
List of wild food plants used by Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin.