Wild Edible Plants of Savastepe District (Balikesir, Turkey)

Abstract

This ethnobotanical study was planned to carried out in villages of Savastepe district (Balikesir, Turkey) between May 2012 to October 2015. The settlements (44 villages) in Savastepe were visited during the field work. With this study, we aimed to document traditional uses of edible plants in Savastepe (Balikesir). Interviews were made with the local people. A total of 205 individuals (107 men, 98 women) interviewed in the area. The plant samples were collected in company with local people. The collected specimens were identified and were deposited as herbarium samples at ISTE (The Herbarium of the Faculty of Pharmacy of Istanbul University). Among these collected plants 71 taxa belonging to 27 families are edible plants. The plants were mostly used as food (55 taxa), spice (14 taxa), beverage (3 taxa) and honey paste (2 taxa). Mostly used parts of plants were leaf (27 taxa), aerial part (20 taxa), fruit (19 taxa) and seed (5 taxa).