Authors
  Youngblood D.
Title
  Identification and quantification of edible plant foods in the Upper
  (Nama) Karoo, South Africa
Source
  Economic Botany. 58(Suppl S):S43-S65, 2004 Win.
Author Keywords
  Wild edible plants.  Foragers.  Ethnobotany.  Karoo.  South africa.
KeyWords Plus
  Phytolith.  Agriculture.  Neotropics.  Artifacts.
Abstract
  More than 18 000 archaeological sites have been identified, and a dozen
  rock shelter sites investigated in the Zeekoe Valley, Upper Karoo, South
  Africa, but no work has been performed to date regarding edible plant
  remains. A baseline for understanding potential contribution of plants to
  the Zeekoe Valley diet is crucial for developing models of land use and
  mobility patterns for Late Stone Age (LSA) inhabitants, particularly since
  ethnographically known foragers in Botswana, some 800 km to the north, are
  as much as 80% dependent on plant foods for their survival. Since native
  foraging groups are long extinct in this semi-arid region with abundant
  natural springs, a rigorous investigation of botanical and ethnohistoric
  literature forms the groundwork for field investigations where direct
  ethnographic observation is no longer an option. First, edible species in
  the study area are identified in the literature. They are then sought on
  the ground with the aid of local informants whose families have resided in
  the valley for generations. It appears as though some knowledge of local
  plants gained from native foragers 150 years ago or more has remained in
  Afrikaans families passed down from landowning parent to child. On the
  ground, collection and middle range experimentation was followed by basic
  nutritional analysis. These measures were then used to compare foraging
  efficiency to measures from extant foraging groups. While dozens of edible
  species were identified, five plant species formed the focus of this
  study: Slymstock Uintjie (Albuca canadensis); Boesman Uintjie (Cyperus
  usitatus, Cyperus fulgens); Jakkalsbosberry (Diospyros austro-africana);
  Rooi wortel (Pelargorium sidoides); and Osbossie (Talinum caffrum).
  Results suggest native foraging groups, now extinct in the vicinity, may
  have been 60% or more dependent on plant food resources, despite abundance
  of game in the area and in the archaeological record. [References: 62]
Institution
  Reprint available from:
  Youngblood D
  So Methodist Univ, Dept Anthropol
  Dallas, TX 75275
  USA