Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants of Iğdır Province ( East Anatolia , Turkey )

Iğdır Province is situated in the Eastern Anatolian Region of Turkey. Wild edible plants and their utilization methods have not been previously documented there. This study was conducted during an ethnobotanical survey of Iğdır Province from 2007 to 2012, in the period from May to October, when plants were in their flowering and fruiting periods. There were 210 interviews carried out in 78 villages. This study provides information about 154 wild plant taxa belonging to 27 families that have been used as foodstuffs, spices, or hot drinks. Seventeen wild edible plants were recorded for the first time during this study. Eight endemic species were reported as used for their edibility, and new local names for plants were also recorded. The cultural importance index was calculated for each taxon. The most culturally important species are Mentha longifolia, Falcaria vulgaris, Polygonum aviculare, Rosa canina, Crataegus azarolus, Capsella bursa-pastoris, and Malus sylvestris. This study presents the richest heritage in terms of the diversity of wild edible plants ever recorded in Turkey.


Introduction
Plants are the main resource which humans use to maintain their existence on Earth, and they have been used in every aspect of life.The use of plants is not limited to documented literature, much knowledge is still accessible in traditional daily life in Turkey.In this regard, there is an ongoing effort in the ethnobotany field to discover the usage of plants.Wild plants are still waiting for studies to be conducted on them, especially, have great potential to be beneficial in all dimensions of life: medicine, food, clothing, etc.Hence, through ethnobotanical investigations we can discover new possibilities for our future, arising from our unwritten memory.
There are 8796 species in the Flora of Turkey (excluding an additional 192 species of the East Aegean Islands) [1][2][3].According to the last checklist, additional 945 species were added to the Flora of Turkey [4].The rate of endemism is about 34% [1].Due to the impact of floristic richness and cultural diversity in Anatolia, many ancient civilizations started to cultivate many food and medicinal plants in this area [5].
Studies on ethnomedicine have gradually developed since 1945 in Turkey [6].In recent years, ethnobotanical studies have aroused attention among researchers in Turkey as well [5,.When the contents of ethnobotanical studies are examined, it may be seen that there is an intense usage of medicinal plants; food plants are less frequently used.In Turkey, there is an important history of gathering plants for food, and the public, especially, satisfy their needs from the forests and mountains on their own.This traditional approach still exists in rural areas.The aerial parts or roots of many wild plants are used as vegetables, which are eaten raw or cooked, as well as being consumed through drying or pickling [69].
There has been some research on edible plants in Turkey already published [14-18, 23,29,35,37,38,51,66].This study was conducted in Iğdır Province, which has a rich cultural heritage and different habitats, in order to survey and record local people's knowledge of wild plants that are used for nourishment.There are only two publications about the medicinal plants of Iğdır [5,58].There has been no investigation of its wild edible plants.This study aims to describe the use of wild edible plants by folk in the Iğdır Province.

Study area
Iğdır Province is located in the Erzurum-Kars part of the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey (Fig. 1).It is comprised of four districts (Central, Tuzluca, Aralık, Karakoyunlu) and 156 villages.Its area covers 3539 km 2 and the elevation of its land varies from 795 to 5165 m a.s.l.Iğdır is composed of 74% mountains and high plateaus and 26% lowlands.Its total population is about 192 000 (2014) [70,71].
The province is located near Mount Ararat, which is the largest and highest volcanic mountain of Turkey (5165 m).What is more, it includes Aras valley, which has an altitude of 800-900 m (Fig. 2).The Iğdır plain has a microclimatic zone.Owing to its microclimate and loamy soils, Aras valley is convenient for growing many kinds of vegetables and fruits [71].The neighboring countries of Turkey in this area are Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan).
The main sources of livelihood are agriculture, in villages on the plain, and animal husbandry in mountain villages.The main crops of Iğdır are apricot, sugar beet, and wheat.Beekeeping is also a potentially good income source in Iğdır [70,71].
This study, aimed at determining the traditional uses and common names of the wild edible plants in Iğdır Province, was carried out from May 2007 to October 2012.Visits to the area consisted of several periods from 5-18 days in a year.There are 156 villages in the province.Seventy-eight villages were studied, most of which were specifically selected mountain villages, far away from the center of Iğdır, and border villages.

Plant material
During the research, a total of 780 plant specimens were collected with the help of the local people consulted.The collected plant specimens were kept in ISTE (The Herbarium of the Istanbul University, Faculty of Pharmacy).These specimens were basically identified with the Flora of Turkey [1][2][3] and other Floras of bordering countries [72,73].Scientific plant names were checked by using The Plant List website [74].

Interviews with local people
A questionnaire was presented to the local people face to face, comprising the following questions: 1. Name and surname of the informant 2. Age and sex of the informant 3. Telephone number and address 4. Date of interview 5. Which kind of wild vegetables/fruits have you collected?6.Which parts have you collected?7. How do you consume it?
Information about the plants, such as local names, usages, used parts, and methods of preparation, etc., were recorded.
A total of 210 interviews were conducted with 127 female and 83 male participants, including both elderly and young people (Fig. 3).During the study, after general observation, the people approved by the villagers as consultants and authorities on plant use were selected for the interviews.The mean age of the respondents was 47 years (from a range of 23-95).Interviews were carried out in their houses, in fields, bazaars, and tea houses.The informants were visited at least twice per study.Taxa with less than two responses were not considered.
The main ethnicity, as ascertained in the interviews, is Azerbaijani Turkish and the second largest ethnic group are Kurdish people.Most people interviewed were Azerbaijani Turkish people, due to their long history in the region.

Data analysis
The cultural importance index (CI) [75,76] was calculated for each taxa according to the following formula: Fig. 2 General view of a village and Mount Ararat.
The index was obtained by adding the UR (use report) in every use category (i, varying from only one use to total number of uses, NU) mentioned for a taxon divided by the number of informants in the survey (N).This is a quantitative method that demonstrates the prominence of species known locally.The theoretical maximum value of the index is the total number of different use categories [75].

Results
Within the scope of the study, following the identification of the plant specimens, 154 taxa were determined.Among them, 132 taxa are used as food, seven taxa as food and tea, four taxa as food and spices, and 11 taxa as spices and tea.The wild edible plants with their family names, herbarium numbers, vernacular names, edible parts, utilization methods, cultural importance index, and previous use records in the literature are presented in Tab. 1, in alphabetical order of their scientific names.The most common families are Asteraceae (24 taxa), Apiaceae (19 taxa), Lamiaceae (13 taxa), Boraginaceae (12 taxa), Polygonaceae (10 taxa), Fabaceae (nine taxa), Brassicaceae (eight taxa), Rosaceae (eight taxa), Asparagaceae (eight taxa), Ranunculaceae (six taxa), and Amaryllidaceae (six taxa).The genera with high ranking in the taxa ordering for the province are the following; Allium with six taxa, Rumex with five taxa, Thymus with five taxa, Trifolium with five taxa, Polygonum with four taxa, Ranunculus with four taxa, Salvia with four taxa, Scorzonera with four taxa, and Tragopogon with four taxa.
Most of the edible plants are used as wild vegetables, and they are collected in spring.71 taxa are used raw (46.1%), 47 taxa are used in cooking (30.5%), and 36 are used both raw and cooked (23.4%).Some of the culinary usages with regard to raw and cooked consumption of the wild taxa are detailed below.

Raw consumption
Wild vegetables are commonly consumed raw in Iğdır Province.They are usually weeds growing in fields, on grasslands and sometimes by roadsides, and mostly collected in spring (April-May).People commonly use them in salads or snacks.Aerial parts or leaves of Achillea tenuifolia, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Cardamine uliginosa, Ornithogalum species, Podospermum species, Prangos ferulacea, Puschkinia scilloides, and Scorzonera species are consumed as salad.Achillea tenuifolia is not only a common wild vegetable but it is also used as a medicinal plant and sold in open markets in spring.Local people in mountain villages collect and consume some of the wild vegetables as appetizers.Allium, Rumex, and Tragopogon species, especially, are eaten as snacks.The nectar of Boraginaceae flowers (e.g., Echium, Nonea, and Onosma species) are sucked as a snack, especially by children.
There are many kinds of wild fruits, and people collect and consume them fresh or dried, especially in summer.Fruits of Berberis species, Chenopodium foliosum, Cotoneaster integerrimus, Crataegus species, Elaeagnus angustifolia, Malus sylvestris, Rosa species, and Viburnum lantana are eaten.Flowers of Iris and Trifolium species are also eaten, mostly by shepherds, as snacks (Tab.1).Firstly, the aerial parts of the plants are boiled in water with bulgur, then yoghurt is added.It is usually consumed for lunch or dinner in summer.The second dish is called "sütaşı" or "sabahaşı" and it is prepared with the leaves of Pseudomuscari forniculatum or Bellevalia species.They are boiled with milk and usually eaten for breakfast.Another consumption category is stuffed foods.The leaves of Arctium platylepis, Heracleum trachyloma, Plantago major, Rumex crispus, and Salvia brachyantha are stuffed with meat and bulgur.The dish is prepared by women.Another one of the cooking methods is roasting.Leaves of some of the Asteraceae and Chenopodiaceae species are thinly sliced before frying, then egg and onions are added.Sometimes they are put into pies.Another interesting consumption method is the preparation of poisonous plants as food.Caltha palustris, Ficaria fascicularis, and Thalictrum minus, all of which have a bitter taste and toxic ingredients [77], are boiled in water, and the aqueous part is discarded.The poultice is always served with yoghurt.Local people do not consume these kinds of poisonous plants without yoghurt, which is used in order to reduce the risk of poisoning after boiling and discarding the water (Fig. 4).A practical and common method for the storage and the consumption of plants in winter is using them as pickles.Aerial parts of some Apiaceae species (Ferula caspica, F. rigidula, Peucedanum longifolium, and Zosima absinthifolia) are treated with salt and vinegar and prepared as a pickle.Cooking marmalade or jam with fruits is very popular among local women in the province.
If we compare this data with other edible plant literature in Turkey [14][15][16][17][18]23,29,35,37,38,51,66], this study comprises probably the richest heritage ever recorded in Turkey in terms of the diversity of wild food plants still gathered and consumed.
The study shows that people who live far away from the town, in mountain villages, use wild plants more often.Wild edible plants are still recognized both by the elderly and by some young local people in the villages of Iğdır Province, despite migration from villages to metropolitan cities like İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir.
Extensive investigations are needed to discover and track those wild plants, which have been used for centuries in these rural regions, and their effects on human life.

Fig. 3 A
Fig. 3 A woman collecting fresh shoots of Urtica dioica.
Fruits of Crataegus species, Rosa canina, and R. xanthina are boiled with sugar and consumed as jam or marmalade.Several aromatic wild plants are used as flavoring.Mentha longifolia and Thymus species are the most common spices which are used to flavor meat dishes and soups.Some of the taxa are used as recreational teas, to be drunk in the absence of any health problem.The aerial parts of Rheum ribes, and the fruits of Viburnum lantana and Rosaceae species are used as hot drinks (Tab.1).

Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Cultural importance index (CI) of the 20 most relevant species.