An ethnobotanical note on wild edible plants of Upper Eastern Himalaya, India

G. Murtem and Pradeep Chaudhry

Abstract
The present article deals with the documentation of tribal knowledge on wild edible plants in Upper Eastern Himalayan Region of India. In total, 269 plant species belonging to 77 families were recorded in the study area of Upper Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh. Dioscoreaceae, Rutaceae, Cucurbitaceae and Arecaceae were the dominant families with 16, 13, 12 and 11 plant species, respectively, while Moraceae and Asteraceae followed with 10 species each. Four major life forms were trees, shrubs, herbs and climbers. Trees made the highest proportion of the edible species (81) followed by shrubs (74), herbs (71) and climbers (37). Availability of some of these species might be a serious constraint in near future due to various anthropogenic factors. Need for undertaking vigorous environmental awareness campaign among local tribes has been stressed upon in the article for conserving this valuable biological resource of Eastern Himalayan region of India.

Keywords
Wild edible plants; Hill Miri Tribe; Nyishi Tribe; Tagin Tribe; Galo Tribe; Arunachal Pradesh.

DOI
10.21472/bjbs.030506

Full text
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