Ethnobotany News

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Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin.

Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)

Mark J. Plotkin 17 Nov 2025
Noraeri Thungmueangthong is a village leader in Huay Ee Khang village in northern Thailand.

Forest sanctuaries and spiritual balance in the Karen highlands of Thailand

Carolyn Cowan 22 Oct 2025
Giant monkey frog in the Western Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

The hidden environmental cost of psychedelics

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Oct 2025
A flowering shoot of jambu.

Amazon jambu blends tradition and science for numbing flavors and healthcare

Sarah Brown 18 Aug 2025
Ampalaya, or bitter gourd (Momordica charantia)

Filipino communities use vast variety of endemic plants for health: Study

Keith Anthony Fabro 12 Aug 2025
Deslin Kalaeng with some yam.

On remote Indonesia karst outpost, Indigenous farmers fear the silence of the yams

Sarjan Lahay 9 Jun 2025
Rainfall over the Amazon river. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)

Mark J. Plotkin 30 Sep 2024
Tightly coiled ferns of Matteuccia struthiopteris.

In Nepal, a humble edible fern is at heart of human-tiger conflict

Abhaya Raj Joshi 6 Sep 2024
Morchella esculenta mushrooms, locally called gucchi.

Traditional foods have the potential to help Kashmir communities adapt to climate change: study

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 16 Jul 2024
Neem flowers

Ghana’s medicinal plants, the ‘first aid’ for communities, are under threat

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 2 Feb 2024
Bissy (Cola acuminata) fruit pod, seeds, and grated seeds, to make bissy tea, a morning tea and medicinal beverage

Caribbean traditional plant knowledge needs recognition or it’s lost: Study

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 26 Jan 2024
A woman prepares a field for paddy farming after harvesting foxtail millet.

Indigenous Gurung farmers revive climate-resilient millet in Nepal

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 1 Jan 2024
Since 2014, Nerea Turreira-Garcia and Dimitris Argyriou have worked with Indigenous communities in Cambodia's Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary to identify species of flora and their uses to the communities. Image by Nerea Turreira-Garcia and Dimitris Argyriou.

‘Immense body of knowledge’ at stake in Cambodia’s Prey Lang as deforestation soars

Gerald Flynn 13 Dec 2023
Chörtens right outside the walled city of Lo Manthang. Image by Jean-Marie Hullot via Flickr (CC BY 2.0 Deed).

Traditional healers push for recognition and licensing of age-old Himalayan practice

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Dec 2023
Amanita muscaria is a mushroom that is both hallucinogenic and poisonous. Image posted by creator 942784 to the Creative Commons via Pixabay.

‘A psychedelic renaissance’: How hallucinogens can aid conservation

Mike DiGirolamo 20 Jun 2023
Gotu kola image by Shahidul Hasan Roman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

‘War with weeds’ lacks ecological understanding and empathy (commentary)

Nimal Chandrasena 1 Feb 2023
Mark Plotkin with an Embera shaman in the Darien on the Colombia-Panama. Photo credit: Amazon Conservation Team

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin: Indigenous knowledge serves as a ‘connective tissue’ between nature and human well-being

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Jan 2022
Melanesia tropical fruits

Between land and sea: Agrobiodiversity holds key to health for Melanesian tribes

Carolyn Cowan 6 Dec 2021

Extinction of Indigenous languages leads to loss of exclusive knowledge about medicinal plants

Sibélia Zanon 20 Sep 2021

An economic case for competing in the XPRIZE Rainforest contest (commentary)

Jonah Wittkamper 1 Mar 2021

Land and language: Indigenous cultures key to protecting Amazon biodiversity

Miguel Pinheiro 5 Nov 2020
Victoria amazonica. © Sir Ghillean Prance

Amazon botanist Sir Ghillean Prance: ‘The environmental crisis is a moral one’

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Oct 2020
Rainbow over the Colombian Amazon. Photo © Wade Davis

Colombia, ethnobotany, and America’s decline: An interview with Wade Davis

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Oct 2020

A Philippine tribe’s plant-based medical tradition gets its moment

Bong S. Sarmiento 2 Oct 2020

Orangutans process plants into medicine, study finds

Morgan Erickson-Davis 4 Dec 2017

What we can learn from uncontacted rainforest tribes

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Nov 2014

Helping the Amazon’s ‘Jaguar People’ protect their culture and traditional wisdom

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Feb 2014

Frog secretion illicitly used to help racehorses run faster

Mongabay.com 21 Jun 2012

Shamans and indigenous spiritual leaders unite in Malibu

Bhalin Singh 9 Nov 2011

Taking back the rainforest: Indians in Colombia govern 100,000 square miles of territory

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 May 2010

How rainforest shamans treat disease

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Nov 2009

Research into drugs derived from natural products declining

Mongabay.com 9 Jul 2009

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