DOI: 10.46309/biodicon.2026.2063685 ISSN: 1308-5301

Traditional Plant Knowledge across Rural and Peri-Urban Istanbul: Documented Plants and Uses

Emine Akalın, Rabia Ebrar Akıncı, Aybüke Kızılırmaklı Demir, Ogün Demir, Evren Cabi
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Purpose: This study examines traditional plant knowledge in rural and peri-urban Istanbul, where environmental access, household production and metropolitan connections coexist.Method: Fieldwork within Türkiye’s national programme for documenting traditional knowledge associated with bio-logical diversity covered 30 neighbourhoods in ten districts in 2021–2022. Purposive selection and local referrals iden-tified 112 informants contributing 667 plant-use reports. Original descriptions were retained alongside standardized taxonomic and use fields. Analyses examined repertoire composition, citation frequency, multifunctionality and district overlap. Retrospective taxon-level classifications distinguished predominantly wild-gathered from cultivated, managed, planted or otherwise obtained taxa, and identified a conservative subset confirmed in Istanbul flora sources. District overlap was assessed using an informant-block permutation model; sampling-adequacy estimates were exploratory.Findings: The repertoire comprises 174 taxa in 129 genera and 52 families, spanning 52 use categories, 25 plant-part groups and 12 preparation groups. Food accounted for 55.2% of reports, human health for 22.3% and household and material uses for 11.8%. Fruit and aerial parts predominated; cooking and raw use were the leading preparations. Tilia tomentosa led food citations, Olea europaea health and Castanea sativa household and material uses. The null model largely reproduced the raw increase in district overlap from taxa to preparations. Lower-than-expected preparation over-lap did not survive multiple-testing correction. Reports involving predominantly wild-gathered taxa accounted for 52.9%; their share was higher in food than health, but taxon-level permutation did not support a systematic domain–acquisition association. Twenty-nine source-confirmed locally occurring or naturalized taxa were linked to 196 reports.Conclusion: The food-weighted repertoire connects gathering and cultivation with household provisioning, seasonal processing and preservation. Wild-gathered and cultivated plants reflect varied forms of environmental access and household production. Spatial differences are described as locally configured combinations, without attribution to a single ecological, historical or migratory cause.

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