The Relationship Between Plant Use and Plant Diversity in the Bolivian Andes,with Special Reference to Medicinal Plant Use

This paper examines the relationship between plant use and plant diversity in 36 transects of 50 × 2 m² laid out in the surroundings of Apillapampa, a community of Quechua subsistence farmers in the Bolivian Andes. Use data were obtained through individual interviews with 13 local key participants and were organized in eight plant use categories. Regression slope analysis showed that for nearly all plant use categories the proportion of used species to available species decreased with increasing plant diversity in transects. Two main groups of plant use categories could be distinguished: diversity followers, for which the number of useful plant species in transects keeps abreast with increasing plant diversity (e.g. medicine) and diversity laggards, for which the number of useful plant species increases only moderately with increasing diversity (e.g., food). We hypothesize that the main difference between both groups is related to the human process of plant selection. In categories that are diversity followers, plants are partly selected and used in an immediacy context, whereby emic perception of efficacy may be of secondary importance. By contrast, plant use in categories of diversity laggards is strongly guided by emic perception of efficacy because plant use takes place in a context in which plants are generally not needed on a short notice.