Background: Ethnic groups throughout the world have developed their own cultures expressed in the form of customs, taboos and traditional healthcare systems. Traditional medicine system is one of the widespread cultures known throughout the world which is very much tied to cultural practices of the community or ethnic group. Medicinal plant treasure found in Gurage and Silti Zones remained poorly characterized and understood. Therefore, this study was conducted in four ethnic groups: three from Gurage zone (Gurage, Qebena and Mareqo) and one from Silti zone (Silti) which have lived in close proximity and contact for many centuries in the respective Zones. In the present study unique and shared cultural elements in connection to traditional herbal medicine were examined through investigation of the diversity of medicinal plants. Moreover, attempts have been made to determine similarities among the society in the medicinal plants they have used in general and in medicinal plant species considered culturally most important.Methods: In a study that involved 320 randomly sampled informants semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation were used and qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Descriptive statistics, rank order priority (ROP), informant consensus factor, jaccard similarity coefficient and clustering were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 244 medicinal plant species and a fungal species used to treat human and/or livestock ailments were documented. The number of plants (80 plants, 33 %) with ROP value greater than 50% is considerably smaller than that of plants with ROP < 50% (164, 67 %). Jaccard similarity index and clustering analysis for all cited plants, among the respective studied districts, indicated that grouping generally followed the existing ethnic origin. On the contrary, clustering based on culturally important medicinal plant species (80 plant species, score ROP ≥ 50%) showed the influence of proximity and geographical orientation rather than ethnic relation. Conclusions: Culturally most important plants (80 spp.) are widely used and best shared with nearby communities and this could imply current (new) knowledge being practiced in the community. This knowledge must be documented and better utilized in a modern way including modernized use of traditional medicinal plants.

Background Farmers have a wealth of indigenous knowledge on enset cultivation in their communities acquired through the accumulation of experience over a long period. Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is a multipurpose species and one of the most widely grown perennial crops in southern Ethiopia. Although enset is a high-value and vital crop for local farmers, necessary information is insufficiently documented and still not fully explored at the local level. Thus, this study was designed to assess and record the wealth of indigenous knowledge related to the local identification, naming, categorization, and traditional uses of enset landraces (farmers’ varieties) relevant for the maintenance of on-farm landrace diversity in Hadiya Zone, southern Ethiopia. Results In this study, we identified 99 locally named enset landraces under cultivation. Farmers regularly identify the name and classify numerous enset landraces based on different criteria, the four morphological traits (namely: leaf, midrib, petiole, and pseudostem colors) are primarily used as criteria for identification. In addition, the local names of some enset landraces are usually indicators and show their uniqueness in morphological traits, places of origin, agronomic features, and quality attributes of products. Based on farmers, cultivated enset landraces are classified into two general groups according to the characteristics regarding the ease of harvesting and processing, rate of fermentation, and quality and values of the end products. Enset products named qocho, bulla and amicho are commonly produced by each family. Furthermore, three types of qocho are traditionally produced by local farmers based on types of the landraces used during harvesting, the presence absence of fermentation starter (gammama), and the duration of fermentation. Conclusion The traditional farming system and associated wisdom contributed to the availability of the present-day on-farm diversity maintained under continuous cultivation and conservation practices. The indigenous knowledge of local farmers regarding the cultural, social, and economic values of enset and its production system is crucial for understanding how the local communities utilize, maintain, and manage the existing enset landrace diversity in their homegardens. It is necessary to integrate indigenous knowledge with the modern system for continuous utilization and conservation strategies of enset genetic resources and their diversity.

Background: Enset is an important source of food for millions and consumed as a staple or co-staple food crop mainly in southern parts of the Ethiopia. Large numbers of enset landraces exist in different administrative zones of Ethiopia with a wide range of altitude. However, limited information is available on the diversity, their distribution and utilization pattern comparatively to the diverse ethno-linguistic as well as socio-cultural communities of the country. Hence, this study was devised to explore and document richness of farmers’ tradition and practice on diversity and distribution of enset landraces on farm-level and selection pattern for different purposes in regarding to its production, utilization and conservation of enset genetic resources.Methods: The study was conducted in four major enset growing administrative zones of Ethiopia namely, Hadiya, Kembata-Tembaro, Gurage and Silte. A total of 240 farm households were surveyed using individual interviews, key informants interviews, focus group discussions and direct on-farm field observations.Results: A total of 282 farmer-named landraces have been identified, with a range from 2 to 32 on individual homegarden. The largest numbers of landraces was found in the Hadiya Zone (86); while the lowest was scored in the Silte Zone (57). The Shannon diversity index (H') ranged from 3.73 (Silte) to 3.96 (Hadiya). Similarly, landraces revealed a very narrow range of variances in the Simpson’s 1-D diversity index, and it ranged from 0.963 (Silte) to 0.978 (Hadiya). Likewise, the similarity index ranged from 0.24 to 0.73 sharing 16-47 landraces in common. Of the 282 landraces, 210 (74.5%) were recorded in more than one zones; whereas, 72 (25.5%) had a narrow distribution and were restricted to single zone. Conclusions: Farmers have established long term practices and experiences in cultivation, utilization and conservation of a diverse group of enset landraces to fill their domestic purposes in each zone. Therefore, in order to facilitate on-farm conservation as well as sustainable utilization of the enset genetic resources, farmers need to be supported by different stakeholders for all their worth, and also in improvement programs. In addition to this, to clarify the exact nature of synonyms and to see if they are duplicates molecular analysis would be helpful and recommended as a follow-up work.

Background: Ethnic groups throughout the world have developed their own cultures expressed in the form of customs, taboos and traditional healthcare systems. Traditional medicine system is one of the widespread cultures known throughout the world which is very much tied to cultural practices of the community or ethnic group. Medicinal plant treasure found in Gurage and Silti Zones remained poorly characterized and understood. Therefore, this study was conducted in four ethnic groups (viz. Gurage, Qebena, Mareqo and Silti) which have lived in close proximity and contact for many centuries in the two Zones. In the present study unique and shared cultural elements in connection to traditional herbal medicine were examined through investigation of the diversity of medicinal plants. Moreover, attempts have been made to determine similarities among the society in the medicinal plants they have used in general and in medicinal plant species considered culturally most important.Methods: In a study that involved 320 randomly samples informants semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation were used and qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Descriptive statistics, rank order priority (ROP), Jaccard similarity coefficient and clustering were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 244 medicinal plant species and a fungal species used to treat human and/or livestock ailments were documented. The number of plants (80 plants, 33 %) with ROP value greater than 50% is considerably smaller than that of plants with ROP < 50% (164, 67 %). Jaccard similarity index and clustering analysis for all cited plants, among the respective studied districts, indicated that grouping generally followed the existing ethnic origin. On the contrary, clustering based on culturally important medicinal plant species (80 plant species, score ROP ≥ 50%) showed the influence of proximity and geographical orientation rather than ethnic relation. Conclusions: Culturally most important plants (80 spp.) are widely used and best shared with nearby communities and this could imply current (new) knowledge being practiced in the community. This knowledge must be documented and better utilized in a modern way including modernized use of traditional medicinal plants.