Edible native plants of the Gulf of Mexico Province

Abstract

Background Currently, at the global level, human food is mainly based on a few crops extensively cultivated as monocultures. Climate change, changes in land to agriculture and cattle raising, as well as the scarcity of water all affect and reduce the possibility of cultivating alternative crops. One way to face this global problem is to promote the knowledge, production and consumption of native food species on a regional scale. For this study, two databases were constructed for the Gulf of Mexico Province: 1) edible plant species with their corresponding common name, category of use, plant organ(s) utilised as food and type of management; 2) distribution records of these edible species. These species, in addition to being part of the biological diversity of Mexico are of high nutritional, cultural and gastronomical value and have been present in the diet of the inhabitants and ethnic groups in the region since pre-Hispanic times. New information This study presents the native edible plants of the Gulf of Mexico Province, an area inhabited by 15 ethnic groups. The main novelty of this contribution is the edible plant species database, which includes the records of 482 species that belong to 101 families and 268 genera. We also present information rarely reported in an ethnobotanical inventory: 1) category of food use, 2) category of plant organ used, 3) common name, 4) type of management and 5) the georeferenced distribution of species occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico Province.