A Stem-based Ethnobotanical Quantification of Potential Rain Forest Use by Mirañas in NW Amazonia

Abstract

Potential plant uses in Colombian Amazonia were ana- lyzed in relation to landscape, stem diameter, habit, and family taxonomy, on the basis of one experienced infor- mant and applying a 2.5 cm diameter cut-off. In 30 0.1 - ha plots, 13,934 plant stems were recorded, 90% of which had some kind of usefulness. The proportion of useful stems was lowest in floodplain and highest in swamp and white sand plots. Between 0 and 11% of the useful stems in the plots were from lianas. Fuel uses were im- portant. Thicker stems were more useful for Food and Ani- mal Food than slender stems. In logistic regression, family taxonomy had a stronger effect on the probability of stem usefulness than DBH, habit (liana or not) or landscape. In- dividual plants from one family (or genus or species) often show little variation in usefulness, hampering the binary analysis by means of logistic regression of use against plant taxonomy.