Planting trees to mark the passing of events and people is a longstanding tradition around the world. To better understand the contemporary practices of memorialization through planting, we examine living memorials created in response to the events of September 11, 2001. As an extension of the U.S. Forest Service Living Memorials Project, we reviewed existing data (n = 787 sites) and identified 223 sites where stewards mentioned planting 102 kinds of flora. Oaks (Quercus spp.) were most commonly mentioned (17% of sites), while 75% of plants/trees were named at only 1% or fewer sites, underscoring their diversity. We also visited 21 sites to document their flora and conduct interviews with stewards (n  =  34 stewards from 33 sites; 13 interviews were conducted by phone). We find that the symbolism of flora plays a role in continuing to keep memories alive at living memorial sites through flora traditionally used in death and memorial contexts; through more localized symbols particular to the sites as conveyed through the meanings of color, habit, and number; and through a newer symbol we identify, the callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) survivor tree. We also find that the community-based planting practices in public space are meaningful themselves, as they can serve as a mechanism to promote healing and recovery for communities and sometimes also promote the co-recovery of social-ecological systems.

How dynamic is place-based traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)? In what ways can its generative and conservative processes allow adaption to a changed environment? How do different cultures mediate TEK of a shared place? We address these questions with an in depth study of TEK of the diverse and socio-ecologically salient genus Rhododendron among the indigenous Naxi and immigrant Nuosu Yi of Mt. Yulong, NW Yunnan, China. TEK in both cultures is rich and intimately connected to the seasonal and elevational progression of rhododendrons. Naxi and Yi knowledge of trends and drivers of change parallel those in ecological studies. Knowledge richness was connected with place (urban vs. rural dwelling and elevation of village) and the immigrant Yi had a knowledge base as rich as that of the indigenous Naxi. Both Yi and Naxi interviewees credited this knowledge equality to a combination of generative processes (Yi villages were higher in elevation and Yi livelihoods made more use of mountain resources, which enabled them to acquire knowledge of plants quickly) and conservative processes (Yi migrated from an equally diverse mountain region in which Rhododendron is also salient; its position was retained in their system of TEK, though its elements were adapted). Among rural Naxi, cultural systems (seasonal festivals and ethnotaxonomy) conserved knowledge, even while their direct use of rhododendrons decreased with changing life-ways.

In 1953–54, Richard S. MacNeish's archaeological investigations in three dry cave sites near Ocampo in southwest Tamaulipas generated important evidence for the early spread of domesticated plants into northeast Mexico. His findings indicate the local development of a mixed foraging-farming economy that persisted for millennia, eventually culminating in settled farming villages. While these discoveries remain central to discussions of Mesoamerican agricultural origins, the spectrum of wild plant utilization in Ocampo is largely unknown because the excavation results were never fully published. Specialists who analyzed the domesticated maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus spp.) and cucurbits (squashes, gourds [Cucurbitaceae]) published their findings and MacNeish produced several synthetic articles with summaries of subsistence practices in Ocampo. However, while these sources recognize that wild plants dominated the local diet early in the sequence and continued in use throughout the height of village agriculture, little consideration has been given of wild taxa. In this article I discuss the contents of curated plant assemblages recovered from excavations in one of these sites, Romero's Cave (Tmc247). Unpublished field reports contextualize these materials and present additional information on plants encountered but not curated. Although fragmentary, these data elucidate the non-agricultural component of the prehistoric economies reflected in the cave occupation layers and enrich understanding of human adaptations on the northeastern periphery of Mesoamerica.

Childhood is an extensive life period specific to the human species and a key stage for development. Considering the importance of childhood for cultural transmission, we test the existence of a “children's culture,” or child-specific knowledge and practices not necessarily shared with adults, among the Baka in Southeast Cameroon. Using structured questionnaires, we collected data among 69 children and 175 adults to assess the ability to name, identify, and conceptualize animals and wild edibles. We found that some of the ecological knowledge related to little mammals and birds reported by Baka children was not reported by adults. We also found similarities between children's and adults' knowledge, both regarding the content of knowledge and how knowledge is distributed. Thus, children in middle childhood hold similar knowledge to adults, especially related to wild edibles. Moreover, as children age, they start shedding child-specific knowledge and holding more adult-specific knowledge. Echoing the gendered knowledge distribution present in adulthood, from middle childhood, there are differences in the knowledge held by boys and girls. We discuss our results highlighting the existence of specific ecological knowledge held by Baka children, the overlap between children's and adults' knowledge, and the changes in children's ecological knowledge as they move into adulthood.

In this study, we analyzed plant knowledge in children living in three environments of northwestern Patagonia. Given the differential socio-ecological circumstances of children's lifestyles that condition their daily activities and perception-action patterns, we hypothesize that their plant knowledge will differ according to their socio-ecological environments. We conducted semi-structured interviews, in which children were asked to mention which plants they knew, what they used them for, how and where they had learned about plants, and whether they gathered or cultivated plants. We interviewed 73 children who were 11 to 12 years old from urban, semi-urban, and rural contexts. Our results showed similarities in the plant knowledge of children inhabiting the same type of socio-cultural environment. Children from rural habitats mentioned a greater diversity of plants, more native species, more plants for medicinal and edible use, and more trees and herbs than children from semi-urban and urban areas. Additionally, children from semi-urban schools cited higher plant richness and more native species, medicinal uses, and life forms than children from urban areas. Most of the plants named by all children were edible species, followed by medicinal, and then ornamental; they also cited more exotic than native plants. Most children referred to species used in their daily lives, suggesting the importance of embodied experience in relation to plant knowledge. The present study showed differential patterns of plant knowledge in children inhabiting distinct environmental contexts, indicating how experience promotes diverse cognitive abilities related to children's connection with plants.

Historical archaeobotany provides an empirical record of sometimes hidden livelihoods, particularly when documentary records are lacking. This paper reports on the wide range of plant taxa identified from the excavation of Historic Cave, Makapan Valley, South Africa, the site of a siege that took place in AD 1854. Growing tensions between Dutch settlers and chiefdoms in the northern regions of the country precipitated what appeared to be a premeditated, well-coordinated attack on the settlers by the Ndebele. In anticipation of settler retaliation, the Kekana Ndebele fortified a cave and furnished it with supplies. However, the Dutch settlers and their auxiliaries placed the Kekana under siege, causing thousands to die. The well-preserved remains of their stores provide a unique record of domestic and wild foods, cultivated and collected by the Ndebele in the mid-nineteenth century. This study gives historic depth to some of the farming practices recorded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in South Africa and provides an indication of the knowledge and wide use of fruiting trees in the area. The presence of a diviner-herbalist hints at the more complex way in which food and plant material may have been regarded and utilized.

Insects have traditionally constituted an important source of food in many cultures, but changes in dietary practices and other lifestyle traits are threatening the transmission of insect-related knowledge and vocabulary to younger generations of Indigenous Australians. This paper describes the rich cultural and culinary traditions surrounding an important insect group, namely a class of edible insect larvae consumed by a desert community in central Australia. Twenty-nine different edible insect larvae are named in the Kaytetye language, with the names encoding the identity of the host plant on which the larvae are found. We describe the complexities involved in the naming system, paying special attention to cultural and linguistic factors. The difficulties in the scientific identification of these ethnotaxa are discussed, as are the significance of our data to (1) questions of universal patterns in ethnoclassification and nomenclature and (2) the purported lack of binomially-labeled folk species in the languages of hunter-gatherer societies.

Despite advances in social scientific research on African descended groups in the Americas, scholars call attention to the need for research on human-environment relationships among these groups. This article responds to this call and examines plant management practices in agricultural systems and associated local knowledge systems in the Quilombo community of Mumbuca, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We describe local classifications of environments in the landscape, agricultural practices, and forest extraction activities within the context of residents' struggles to maintain access to their territory—first due to encroachment by large landowners and more recently due to the establishment of the Mata Escura Biological Reserve, overlying 74% of residents' territory. Research reveals that residents maintain complex resource management activities despite environmental restrictions in place for over a decade and that these practices have contributed to landscape configurations, forest cover, and biodiversity within the territory. Wilderness discourses underlying conservation policies, however, render residents and their conservationist practices invisible to policy makers. We argue that Quilombo lands, just as indigenous territories, are important conservation areas, maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper advances anthropological, ethnoecological, and historical ecological studies on Quilombo communities in Brazil and sheds light on the social condition of rural Quilombo groups and their multiple forms of resistance.