Folk Knowledge of an Individual Plant Specimen: The Case of the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis L.) in Virestad Parish, Småland, Sweden
Abstract
Ethnobiological studies of local economic or folk religious uses of plants often rely on the assumption that plant use relates to folk knowledge about specific taxa. However, in some cases, folk knowledge is more about beliefs concerning an individual plant. When Carl Linnaeus traveled in 1749 through his native province of Småland, Sweden, he observed a striking specimen of a royal fern (Osmunda regalis L.), which was being used by a local healer. The appearance and unusually large size of this individual plant specimen were possibly responsible for its use. This species has not been used elsewhere in Sweden and historical data refer only to the single specimen observed by Linnaeus.References
Anderson, M. 2000. Sami Children and Traditional Knowledge. In Ecological Knowledge in the North: Studies in Ethnobiology, edited by I. Svanberg and H. Tunón, pp. 55–66. Swedish Science Press, Uppsala.
Blackman, W. S. 1925. Sacred Trees in Modern Egypt. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 11:56–57.
Brøndegaard, V. J. 1978. Folk og flora: dansk etnobotanik 1. Rosenkilde og Bagger, Copenhagen.
Darwin, T. 1996. The Scots Herbal: The Plant Lore of Scotland. Mercat Press, Edinburgh.
Egenter, N. 1981. The Sacred Trees around Goshonai/Japan. Asian Folklore Studies 40:191–212.
Grieve, M. 1931. A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-Lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs & Trees with all their Modern Scientific Uses 2. Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York.
Gunda, B. 1989. A virágzó páfrány. In A rostaforgató asszony, edited by B. Gunda, pp. 71–84. Múzsák Kiadó, Budapest.
Heinrich, M., J. Kufer, M. Leonti and M. Pardo-de-Santayana. 2006. Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology: Interdisciplinary Links with the Historical Sciences. Journal of ethnopharmacology 107:157–160. DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2006.05.035.
Hyltén-Cavallius, G. O. 1863–64. Wärend och Wirdarne 1. F. A. Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm.
Kolosova, V. B. 2005. Name–Text–Ritual: The Role of Plant Characteristics in Slavic Folk Medicine. Folklorica: Journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association 10: 44–62.
Lévi-Strauss, C. 1962. La pensée sauvage. Plon, Paris.
Linnaeus C. 1745. Öländska och Gothländska Resa, på Riksens Högloflige Ständers befallning förrättad Åhr 1741. Gottfried Kieselwetter, Stockholm.
Linnaeus C. 1751. Skånska Resa, På Höga Öfwerhetens Befallning Förrättad År 1749. Lars Salvius, Stockholm.
Łuczaj, Ł. 2008. Archival Data on Wild Food Plants used in Poland in 1948. Journal of ethnobiology and ethnobotany 4:4. DOI: 10.1186/1746-4269-4-4.
Molina M., V. Reyes-García and M. Pardo-de-Santayana. 2009. Local Knowledge and Management of the Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis L.) in Northern Spain: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation. American Fern Journal 99: 45–55. DOI: 10.1640/0002-8444-99.1.45.
Myrdal, J. 2009. Source Pluralism and a Package of Methods: Medieval Tending of Livestock as an Example. In Methods and the Medievalist: Current Approaches in Medieval Studies, edited by M. Lamberg, J. Keskiaho, E. Räsänen and O. Timofeeva, pp. 134–154. Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Newkirk, C. N., K. S. Oths, W. W. Dressler, and J. E. Dos Santos. 2009. Intracultural Diversity in Food Knowledge in Southern Brazil. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 48:285–302. DOI: 10.1080/03670240903022304
Pelto, P. J. and G. H. Pelto. 1975. Intra-Cultural Diversity: Some Theoretical Issues. American ethnologist 2:1–18. DOI:10.1525/ae.1975.2.1.02a00010.
Pieroni, A. 2003. Wild Food Plants and Arbëresh Women in Lucania, Southern Italy. In Women and Plants: Gender Relations in Biodiversity Management Concervation, edited by P.L. Howard, pp. 66–82. Zed Books, London.
Reyes-García, V., N. Martí, T. McDade, S. Tanner and V. Vadez. 2007. Concepts and methods in studies measuring individual ethnobotanical knowledge. Journal of Ethnobiology 27: 182–203. DOI: 10.2993/0278-0771(2007)27[182:CAMISM]2.0.CO;2.
Schiöler, S. 1931. Safsan: en vallfart till mor Ingeborg i Mjärhult predikstol. Sveriges natur 22: 41–50.
Sõukand R., R. Kalle and I. Svanberg. 2010. Uninvited Guests: Traditional Insect Repellents in Estonia used against the Clothes Moth Tineola bisselliella, Human Flea Pulex irritans and Bedbug Cimex lectularius. Journal of Insect Science 10: 150. DOI: 10.1673/031.010.14110.
Stearn, W. T. 1994. Linnaeus as an Economic Botanist. Botanical Journal of Scotland 46:702–706.
Svanberg, I., Ł. Łuczaj, M. Pardo-de-Santayana and A. Pieroni. 2011. History and Current Trends of Ethnobiological Research in Europe. In Ethnobiology, edited by E. N. Anderson, D. Pearsall, E. Hunn and N. Turner, pp. 191–212. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ.
Sydow, C. W. 1935. Något om träden i folkets tro och sed. In Svenska kulturbilder XI–XII, pp. 227–258. Skoglund, Stockholm.
Sydow, C. W. 1973. Det ovanligas betydelse i tro och sed. In Folkdikt och folktro, edited by A. B. Rooth, pp. 200–214. Gleerups, Lund.
Vickery, R. 1995. A Dictionary of Plant Lore. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Wigström, E. 1896. Växtlifvet i folkets tro och diktning. Ord och Bild 5:12–19.
Copyright (c) 2012 Ethnobiology Letters
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content and grant Ethnobiology Letters (the “Journal”) and the Society of Ethnobiology right of first publication. Authors and the Journal agree that Ethnobiology Letters will publish the article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must make clear the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
In publishing with Ethnobiology Letters corresponding authors certify that they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements. They warrant, on behalf of themselves and their co-authors, that the content is original, has not been formally published, is not under consideration, and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights. They further warrant that the material contains no matter that is scandalous, obscene, libelous, or otherwise contrary to the law.
Corresponding authors will be given an opportunity to read and correct edited proofs, but if they fail to return such corrections by the date set by the editors, production and publication may proceed without the authors’ approval of the edited proofs.
