Tropicultura (Jan 2013)
Diversité floristique, ethnobotanique et taxonomie locale des mauvaises herbes de l'oignon au Nord-est du Bénin
Abstract
Floristic Diversity, Ethno-botanic and Local Taxonomy of Onion's Weeds in the North East of Benin. A study has been conducted in order to document scientific names, local names and their significations, and also to apprehend onion's weed species nomenclature adopted by farmers in the North East of Benin. Thirty onion's households have been surveyed through semi-structured interviews and a floristic inventory was carried out in each of them. Weeds'species and their botanic families and also the criteria of their local names have been identified and have served to elaborate a local taxonomy typology. 71 species which belong to 26 botanic families and 17 species belonging to six families constitute respectively the general flora and the flora associated to onion in vegetation.Poaceae,Cyperaceae, Commelinaceae, Malvaceae, Fabaceae and Portulacaceae are the most important families according to their number of species. Ecology, morphology, resistance to hoe weeding and socio-cultural usages are the criteria that were used to develop the local denomination of 39 among 71 identified species, and have served to elaborate the typology of local taxonomy. The other 32 species without local names do not have any major agroecological, nor socio-cultural interest for farmers. The evaluation of the agronomic importance of the flora associated to onion's vegetation can contribute to a better control of the weeds of this crop.
