Ethnophytonomical study about the Pyrenean Valley of Roncal (Navarre)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the local names of plants in the Roncal Valley (Navarre Pyrenees) from a multidisciplinary perspective. Through the ethnographic survey and herborisations carried out during 2016/2017 it has been possible to register the traditional and ethnobotanical knowledge of the region. It has been obtained 558 phytonyms of 269 plants (256 identified species and 13 undetermined still). The estimated results of the analysis indicate that 67.20% of the phytonyms have Basque lexemes, prefixes or suffixes. Likewise, the article exposes how 31 of them are shared among the different plants studied and the 61% of these plants have multiplicity of local names. In addition, after the ethnographic classification of them, it has been possible to verify that the categories physiophytonym (28.03%), onomaphytonym (27.90%) and allegorical-metaphorical (17.80%) are the most representative. The study concludes with an assessment of the evolution, loss or conservation of many of these common names today after an anthropologicalbotanical contextualization.