Specie’s diversity of flora food used in a rural community of northeast brazil

Abstract

Plants have been used as food sources since the humanity`s beginning. The objective was to
search the flora species used for human consumption in the rural community Novo Nilo / PI,
Brazil, as well as distribute them in families, verify the species with the highest Use Value and
rescue popular wisdom. 202 people participated in the survey. The data were collected after
submission and approval of the research in the Ethics and Research Committee of the Federal
University of Piauí. Semi-structured interviews and direct observation were carried out. In the
extractivism, the use of coco-babaçu (Attalea speciosa Mart. ex Spreng) and the following
species: bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), corn (Zea mays L.) is highlighted.
The researched species guarantee the survival of rural populations and the popular knowledge
must be rescued and kept through actions developed by the responsible entities for community`
s management, to avoid acculturation.