The fruit of the pingan tree (left) is different from that of the lumky tree (right), but Western scholars have misclassified the two trees as one species for nearly two centuries. Credit: left, Elias Edney; right, Elliott Gardner
New species can be hidden from view. A popular Asian fruit tree that received its scientific name Artocarpus odoratissimus has been considered a type of Western science for almost two centuries, although some indigenous peoples in Asia apply two names to the tree. But a genetic study1 now confirms that the evergreen plants that the researchers collected together A. odoratissimus in fact, they belong to two species – as reflected in their local names, each of which refers to a different species of tree.
This reclassification illustrates how indigenous knowledge can change and strengthen our understanding of biodiversity, says co-author Elliott Gardner, a botanist at the International Center for Tropical Botany in Miami, Florida.
“The key picture is that the knowledge we now confirm with molecular markers has been around all along,” said Matteo Del’Aqua, a geneticist at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, who was not involved in the study. . “There is information that we do not have access to if we do not talk to traditional cultures. The study was published on June 6 Current biology.
A tree with many names
A. odoratissimus was first included in the Western taxonomy in 1837 by Manuel Blanco, a Spanish monk living in the Philippines. Like other members of the genus Artocarpuslike jackfruit (A. heterophyllus) or bread fruit (A. altilis)A. odoratissimus is grown in Southeast Asia for its large sweet fruits.
The tree is probably domesticated on the island of Borneo, which is a hot spot for Artocarpus diversity. Borneo today is divided between the nations of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei and is home to about 50 ethnic groups. Among them is Iban, the largest ethnic group in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in northern Borneo.
In 2016, Gardner and his Malaysian colleagues were conducting fieldwork in Sarawak when they noticed that Iban’s Polish botanists used two names to denote the tree. The botanists from Iban called A. odoratissimus trees with large fruits and leaves lumokbut called trees with smaller, less sweet fruits ping.
Researchers later learned that people belonging to another ethnic group in northern Borne, Dusun, also have separate names for the two species. A. odoratissimus. To see if this difference could be found in the DNA of trees, researchers conducted a genetic study comparing lumok to ping. The team found that the two tree species are related but are genetically different enough to be considered separate species. lumok keeping the name A. odoratissimus and ping given the scientific name Artocarpus mutabilis.
Gardner says the team has considered researching whether these are separate species simply because local botanists have used different names. He added that science has a long history of leveraging the knowledge of indigenous peoples – for example, scientists often rely on local guides to help them make sense of the world around them.
“It’s not at all surprising that people who are around these plants all day know them more intimately than scientists who just come to the field from time to time,” he said.
But indigenous contributions are often overlooked or misappropriated, especially when in opposition to Western priorities, said Victoria Reyes-Garcia, an anthropologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.
Interacting with indigenous peoples’ knowledge on an equal footing can help scientists learn more about the natural world and how to protect it, Gardner said. “We can’t keep what doesn’t have a name,” he said.
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