Introduction

My name is Preston, I am student at the University of North Texas Studying Anthropology. I am currently working on a senior thesis on an ethnobiological survey of wild edible plants on the University of  North Texas campus.

The purpose of this research is to inventory wild edible plants on the UNT campus to provide a baseline awareness about local environmental knowledge that could become more visible on campus. This project is inherently geographic, because in the simplest terms little is known about what wild edible plants are found on the campus or where are they are located.  The project is also anthropological because there is a wealth of ethnobiological knowledge associated with useful plants. The mapping of environmental knowledge can make it accessible to people who have not been exposed to the biocultural landscape that exists on the UNT campus. The mapped knowledge can inspire a more direct experience of human-environment relationships, which can influence values and an ethical perspective among members of the campus community.

For decades the University of North Texas has projected an image of environmental concern and in recent decades, sustainability. With the creation of the Office of Sustainability and the Green Fund, scattered sustainable projects across campus have an avenue for funding and support. One such project is the creation of an on-campus community garden. The creation of a community garden on campus has accelerated a dialogue on management systems. Management is defined by Lertzman (2009:339) as “a set of actions taken to guide a system towards achieving desired goals and objectives.” Expanding the management concept, Lertzman (2009:339) defines Management Systems as “the sum of these actions, goals and objectives, the process through which they are legitimized by social norms, and the institutions and actors involved in carrying them out.” In Traditional Management Systems throughout history and the world, people have used wild edible plants as either a primary subsistence source or as “Green-Social-Security” that is used in conjunction with more intensely cultivated species (Cunningham 2001). Green social security refers to supplementary resources that can be used in conjunction with staple resources, especially should the staple decline in abundance or quality or fail altogether.

The UNT campus has a significant amount of wild edible plants in plain sight, such as wild cucumber and several species of yucca, which I have observed during walks around campus. From these direct encounters I was able to make a connection between the plants, place, and ethnobiological knowledge. What I experienced was a broadening of my own ecological understanding. I would like to formalize these observations not only to increase my own ecological understanding, but to increase direct encounters for others and to potentially broaden  ecological understanding on campus. Through identification and mapping of wild edible plants in the form of an ethnobiological inventory, the value of these plants can be communicated which may broaden and increase ecological understanding on campus.