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The diversity of local Mediterranean food elements is not known in detail, but offers itself to search for new vegetables, salads, fruits and spices which could be used in to enrich diets outside their region of origin. Most amid those interesting local elements are edible wild plants and weeds. Ethnobotanical research has identified ca. 2,300 different plant and fungi taxa, which are gathered and consumed in the Mediterranean. Among these, >1,000 are only consumed in one single zone, therefore are strictly local. The percentage of local gathered food plant (GFP) taxa (present in <5 samples), is higher in the main centers of diversity at the periphery of the Mediterranean (Sahara, Alps, Caucasus, Canary Islands, the Levant). Islands (Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, Cyprus) also show a high proportion. Endemism of GFP taxa only accounts for a limited number of these 'ethnobotanical endemics' (only ca. 350 are endemic/ endangered species). On the other hand, only a few taxa--30 occurring in >20 samples--are consumed in most of the Mediterranean. Most have been analyzed in the Local Food- Nutraceuticals project. The ca. 800 GFP taxa that occur in more than the 5% of localities show a geographical pattern that permits one to recognize seven geographical groups. These groups show relationships with types of Mediterranean diet and could also be related with human genetic polymorphism through long-term co-evolution in a geographical mosaic pattern.

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A genetic fingerprinting technique (AFLP) was used to determine the relationships among Capparis spp. Genetic distances, based on AFLP data were estimated for 45 accessions of Capparis species, from Spain, Morocco and Syria. The results of this analysis support the differentiation of four of the five taxa involved. The group of plants recognised as C. spinosa on the basis of morphological characters, includes several cultivars and appears in an intermediate position between C. orientalis and C. sicula and overlaps with C. orientalis. The other two species C. aegyptia and C. ovata are separate from the rest. Capparis spinosa had a low number of unique bands in comparison with the other species. Although these results cannot confirm the hybrid origin of C. spinosa, the distribution of the bands supports this hypothesis, the most likely parental species being C. orientalis and C. sicula.

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