Wild food plants gathered by four cultural groups in North Waziristan, Pakistan

The foraging of wild food plants (WFPs) is an important sociocultural and human ecological phenomenon, especially in more peripheral rural and mountain areas of the world. Plant-centered local knowledge and practices are an important asset of every human community and their articulation is specific for every cultural group, although sometimes these knowldge systems can extend beyond cultural borders and be shared among diverse lingustic, ethnic, and religious groups. The current study explored the WFPss used among four cultural groups, i.e., Dawar, Mehsood, and Wazir Pathans, and Ormur speakers, living in North Waziristan, NW Pakistan. A total of 47 WFPs were used by the studied groups, most of which were used as snacks (35 species) or cooked vegetables (23 species). Fruits and aerial parts were frequently consumed. Cross-cultural analysis revealed that only 11 species were commonly used by the four studied groups and a high overlap of plant use was observed between the Mehsood and the Ormur peoples, and the Mehsood and the Wazir communities. More particularly, the WFP use of the Ormur has been completely homogenized with the three different Pathan cultural groups, which indicates a possible cultural assimilation of the Ormur to the dominant Pathan culture, which in turn may have affected their plant use. The study also reports some food and herbal ingredients that are new or rarely used for/in the NW Pakistani ethnobotanical literature, such as Chenopodium botrys, Iris hookeriana, Marrubium vulgare, Pistacia khinjuk, Polygonum verticillatum, Tamarix aphylla, and Tricholepis furcata. It is advisable that the recorded food biocultural heritage be properly revitalized for imporving the food security of the local communities as well as seriously considered in future development programs.