Native American Ethnobotany
Native American Ethnobotany is a comprehensive account of the plants used by Native American peoples for medicine, food, and other purposes. Moerman, has devoted more than 25 years to the compilation of the ethnobotanical knowledge gathered over the course of many centuries and recorded in hundreds of firsthand studies of American Indians during the past 150 years. This research has yielded a treasure-trove of information, the magnitude of which will surprise even those familiar with the anthropological and botanical literature: it documents Native American use of 4,029 plants with a total of 44,691 usages. More than half of these usages are medicinal, but the breadth of plant knowledge among Native American peoples is shown by the listings of 11,078 uses for foods, 2,567 for fibers, 607 for dyes, and 5,494 for a rich assortment of other applications, such as ceremonial and magical items, cleaning agents, containers, fertilizers, fuels, incense and fragrance, insecticides, jewelry, lubricants, musical instruments, preservatives, smoking and snuff, soap, waterproofing, tools, toys, and weapons.
