Franz K. Huber

Phenotypic selection on floral scent: trade-off between attraction and deterrence?

Flowers emit a large variety of floral signals that play a fundamental role in the communication of plants with their mutualists and antagonists. We investigated phenotypic selection on floral scent and floral display using the rewarding orchid species Gymnadenia odoratissima. We found positive directional selection on inflorescence size, as well as positive and negative selection on floral scent compounds. Structural equation modeling showed that “active” compounds, i.e. those that were shown in earlier investigations to be detected by pollinator insects, were positively linked to fitness, whereas “non-active” were negatively linked to fitness. Our results suggest that different patterns of selection impact on different scent compounds, which may relate to the functions of compounds for attracting/deterring insects.

People, money, and protected areas: the collection of the caterpillar mushroom Ophiocordyceps sinensis in the Baima Xueshan Nature Reserve, Southwest China

The caterpillar mushroom Ophiocordyceps sinensis (syn. Cordyceps sinensis) is among the most valuable mushrooms in the world, and plays a major role for the local economies in its distribution area on the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions. Large proportions of its habitat fall into protected areas, and best practice of sustainable harvest is under discussion, considering both, O. sinensis as a valuable income source for rural poor and protection of its populations and habitat. This study aims for a detailed analysis of O. sinensis collection in a nature reserve in Southwest China. We found that harvesting is unevenly distributed among households and villages, with households who have access to the resource but lack adequate alternatives for income generation such as rewarding wage labor, fertile agricultural fields or harvest of other high value products being most involved. Although collection is de jure forbidden, authorities of the nature reserve apply adaptive management strategies for sustainable resource use. This includes the allocation of collection areas to communities based on their traditional land use strategies and the control of harvesters from outside, triggering self-policing of the resource by the local people. The strategies applied provide a promising model also for other protected areas where the caterpillar mushroom is collected.

Mao's heritage: Medicinal plant knowledge among the Bai in Shaxi, China, at a crossroads between distinct local and common widespread practice

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE The study focuses on medicinal plant knowledge among the Bai in the Shaxi Valley, Northwest Yunnan, where no ethnobotanical study has been conducted so far. In an area of high biodiversity, distinct medicinal plant knowledge is documented and the influence of herbals on local knowledge is revealed. AIM OF THE STUDY To analyse current medicinal plant knowledge among the Bai in the context of the influence of the Han culture and mainstream Chinese herbal medicine. MATERIALS AND METHODS During fieldwork in summer 2005, semistructured interviews were conducted with 68 stakeholders, and voucher specimens of all plants mentioned were prepared. RESULTS A total of 176 medicinal plant species were documented and 1133 use-reports have been collected. Overall, 91.5% of the documented plants are already established as known drugs, and are mentioned in books on medicinal plants in Yunnan and China. Furthermore, the way in which they are used largely coincides. Fourteen plant species represent novel recordings, 9 of which were independently mentioned by three or more informants. CONCLUSIONS The medicinal plant knowledge of the Bai is strongly influenced by mainstream Chinese herbal medicine and especially by medicinal plant books from the 1970s, which were distributed under Mao Zedongs directive to improve rural health care. We conclude that these herbals have exerted, and continue to exert, a strong influence on the standardisation of plant knowledge among rural populations in China. However, distinct local use of plants also exists, indicating that plant knowledge specific to the Bai people is alive and practiced.

Livelihood and Conservation Aspects of Non-wood Forest Product Collection in the Shaxi Valley, Southwest China(1)

Livelihood and Conservation Aspects of Non-wood Forest Product Collection in the Shaxi Valley, Southwest China. The Shaxi Valley in Yunnan Province, P.R. China, is inhabited by Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups. We found a clear dichotomy between household strategies in the valley bottom and the mountain areas, with significantly lower household income in the mountains. The majority Bai people live predominantly in the fertile valley floor and cultivate rice, keep livestock, and commonly pursue off-farm work. Other ethnic groups live in more remote mountainous areas of the Shaxi Valley, where the collection of non-wood forest products, especially wild mushrooms, plays an important role in securing livelihoods. However, only households in the valleys central villages engage in the profitable non-wood forest product trade. Mushroom populations appear to be less vulnerable to commercial harvest than the rapidly declining wild medicinal plant populations. Due to this decline, local farmers have gained interest in cultivating medicinal plants, but only if risks are low and if financial and technical support is provided. Encouraging the cultivation of medicinal plants appears to be an appropriate means of sustainable community development.摘要中国西南地区沙溪流域的非木材林产品采集与生计和保护的关系. 沙溪流域位于中国西南地区的云南省剑川县南部, 居住有白、汉、彝、僳僳、纳西等多个藏-缅语系的少数民族。我们发现:在同一流域内, 山区农户的收入远不及坝区高, 两地的家庭生计策略大相径庭; 流域的主体民族白族居住在平坦而肥沃的坝区, 以种植水稻、发展畜牧业以及寻找一些非农收入作为生计发展策略, 而居住在边远山区的其他一些少数民族, 多以采集和销售非木材林副产品, 特别是菌类以维系生计, 但从事非木材林副产品经销的人主要是来自坝区中心村寨村民。研究还发现:由于商业化采集, 当地的野生药用植物资源锐减, 而菌类资源受威胁程度较小; 如果风险不大, 资金和技术有保障, 当地农户对种植药材表现出浓厚的兴趣, 因此鼓励药材种植应是当地实现可持续发展的有效途径。

Diversification of Livelihoods in a Society in Transition: A Case Study of Tibetan Communities in Southwest China

In recent years, large development and market integration programs have altered the socioeconomic structures and cultural identity of rural communities and ethnic minorities in Southwest China and influenced the management of natural resources. This article analyzes livelihood strategies in the Shuiluo Valley, a remote area of the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. Agricultural activities and the management of natural resources were studied in five villages of Muli Tibetan Autonomous County, Sichuan Province. Characteristic for rural societies in transition, livelihoods were found to be flexible, combining subsistence agriculture, off-farm employment, and the exploitation of both renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Accessibility of villages did not influence household income and livelihood activities, and poorer households were not found to depend more on natural resources or on income from agriculture than wealthier households. The option of gold prospecting constitutes a major difference compared to more nontimber forest product-based livelihoods in adjacent areas of Southwest China.

Plant Names as Traces of the Past in Shuiluo Valley, China

Abstract This study presents results of interdisciplinary fieldwork in Southwest China by a team of linguists and ethnobotanists. It is based on a comparative analysis of 70 common plant names in five Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Shuiluo Valley. The discussion focuses on (a) names for locally important field crops and (b) plant names that are shared between two or more languages. We make a preliminary stratification of cognates and loanwords; we advance hypotheses about the sources of loanwords; and we assess the distribution of loanwords against the background of the existing historical and linguistic accounts of the studied languages. The observed patterns shed light on the complex migration history in the area and identify a group of plant names which may originate in a linguistic variety which was once (or still is) native to Shuiluo.

Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels: Influence of Value Chain on Quality Criteria and Marker Compounds Ferulic Acid and Z-Ligustilide

Background: Dang gui (Apiaceae; Angelica sinensis radix) is among the most often used Chinese medicinal plants. However, hardly anything is known about its value chain and its influence on the main marker compounds of the drug. The aim of this study is to investigate the value chain of dang gui in Gansu and Yunnan, and the analysis of the marker compounds ferulic acid and Z-ligustilide concentration in relation to quality criteria such as the production area and size of the roots. Methods: During six months of field research in China, semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders of the value chain were undertaken and plant material was collected. High-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) was used for semi-quantitative analysis of ferulic acid and Z-ligustilide. Results: Small-scale household cultivation prevails and in Gansu—in contrast to Yunnan—the cultivation of dang gui is often the main income source of farmers. Farmers and dealers use size and odor of the root as main quality criteria. For Chinese medicine doctors, Gansu as the production area is the main criterion. Higher amounts of ferulic acid in plant material from Yunnan compared to Gansu were found. Additionally, a negative relation of root length with both ferulic acid and Z-ligustilide as well as head diameter with ferulic acid were found. Conclusions: HPTLC is a valid method for semi-quantitative analysis of the marker compounds of dang gui. However, the two main marker compounds cannot explain why size and smell of the root or production area are seen as quality criteria. This hints at the inherent difficulty to correlate quality notions of medicinal plants with specific chemical compounds. With respect to this, more attention should be paid to quality in terms of cultivation and processing techniques.

A New Hysteranthous Species of Chelonopsis (Lamiaceae) from Southwest China

Abstract A new species, Chelonopsis praecox Weckerle & F. Huber (Lamiaceae, Lamioideae) from southwest China, is described and illustrated, and its relationship to morphologically similar species is discussed. Chelonopsis praecox differs from the other species of the genus by its characteristic to bear flowers and fruits in springtime and early summer, before the development of leaves during the summer rainy season, while all other Chelonopsis species flower during summer or autumn. Prominent distinguishing morphological features are found in the stem bark, leaf size and indumentum, and inflorescences. So far, the species is only known from the northern part of the Shuiluo Valley in southwest Sichuan; additional collections are necessary to clarify its full distributional range.

The Shuhi House between Reformist China and Revivalist Tibet

Abstract The Shuhi of Muli County, Sichuan province, inhabit the Tibetan-Chinese borderlands. In this paper, we focus on Shuhi kinship practices that accord the house the importance it appears to have for the Shuhi themselves. We demonstrate that the Shuhi engage in kinship practices that are ‘hearth-oriented’ (Hsu 1998b: 67–99) in a dynamic process affected by the current political economic changes in reformist China and religious revivalism in Tibet. The ‘hearth-oriented’ kinship practices we discuss include issues of who among the offspring continues to live in the house of their parents, how places of worship in a house are oriented in relation to the physical environment and the divine landscape, and how practices regarding the naming of houses are changing from deictics of place to lineage and family names. Based on empirical data, gathered between 1996–2011, we show that there are significant differences in all practices, which reflect a Tibetan-Chinese gradient along the north-south axis of Shuhi settlements. But there are also striking continuities.

Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China

Abstract The Shuhi of Muli County, Sichuan Province, are one of multiple ethnic groups inhabiting the river gorges of the Qinghai-Gansu-Sichuan corridor between the Tibetan plateau and the Chinese lowlands. The Shuhi have grown paddy rice since times immemorial at an unusually high altitude (ca. 2,300 m above sea level). This article aims to explain this conundrum not merely through the ecology (as is common among Tibetan area specialists), but by researching the cultivation and consumption of rice as a historically-evolved cultural practice. According to a recently formulated agro-archaeological hypothesis regarding the macro-region of Eurasia, it is possible to identify two supra-regional culture complexes distinguished by their respective culinary technologies: rice-boiling versus wheat-grinding-and-baking. The hypothesis posits that the fault line between the two supra-regional cultural complexes is precisely along this river gorges corridor. In this article we provide support for this hypothesis arguing that Shuhi ritual and kinship practices have much affinity with those of other rice-boiling peoples in Southeast Asia, whereas certain of their current religious practices are shared with the wheat-grinding Tibetans.