Botany

In the context of a class exercise, students enrolled in the Introductory Ethnobotany course at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa were asked to make up names for 40 fresh plant specimens avoiding the use of any previously known common names. One of the aims of this exercise was to collect data regarding the visual reaction of these students. The students came up with names that were related to shape, color and other morphological features of the plant specimens. An effective and meaningful way to understand the results collected from this exercise is to picture what these students actually did in class. Since images are a powerful way to express information, the method used in this exercise is presented here as a photo essay in the hope that researchers and instructors from other parts of the world can conduct similar class exercises with their students.

Apples (Malus pumila Mill., Rosaceae) were chosen for study as model plants that are widely familiar to students in the US and because a number of distinctly different varieties are commonly available. This links to our interview data from cider makers on four continents regarding their knowledge and classification of apples. The interview results showed that many multigenerational cider makers applied experiential knowledge such as tasting rather than mere observations of plant morphology in order to identify the plants with which they worked. They apply classification schemes for apples based on taste and texture that are useful for blending of cider. The cider makers‟ classification of apples is strikingly different from modern botanical classification typically taught to students which focuses on morphological features and not smells or tastes. The lessons learned from cider makers were then applied to the classroom. A curriculum was developed that substitutes experiential for observational learning, thus mimicking traditional learning. Measures of both student learning and course satisfaction improved with the implementation of this alternative strategy. We hope to help education through the development of experiential-based, science-education curricula by focusing on traditional knowledge involving basic senses such as taste and smell.

A Mouthful of Diversity: Knowledge of Cider Apple Cultivars in the United Kingdom and Northwest United States. There is a general assumption in the study of folk taxonomy that those people who have been interacting with a given crop the longest have the most knowledge about the crop's names. We treated this as an hypothesis which can be tested with knowledge of cider apples. This use of apples extends back many generations in some places, while in other regions people are just learning to make cider. The experimental design is to assess quantitatively the cider apple diversity being used compared to the knowledge of this diversity by cider makers. The test involves two populations of cider makers: those who come from a long-standing tradition of cider making and those who recently learned to make cider. Research was conducted in parts of England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Washington State, U.S.A. Semistructured interviews and questionnaires were used to elicit cider apple variety names. Traditional knowledge associated with cider production was also collected. Eighty-two cider apple variety names were obtained. In addition, it is estimated that between 111 and 328 varieties were recognized but could not be named. There was a significant difference between the cider apple cultivars that cider makers could name and those that they could discern. On average, cider makers could name eight varieties, but discern 16 varieties of cider apples largely on the basis of appearance, taste, and smell. There was no significant difference in the knowledge of cider apple variety names between long-standing cider makers and those that recently learned to make cider. As with cider apples, we would expect that farmers of other culturally-significant crops would not always know named diversity if there are other cues to let them track varietal difference, such as appearance, taste, or smell.