Effect of Mexico-United States migration on the transmission of plant knowledge

Transmission of plant knowledge is affected by migration. Knowledge loss is especially important to rural communities whose diets are dependent not only on  cultivated crops but on the local ecology. Ethnobotanical interviews using photographs of 20 wild or semi-wild Mexican plants were conducted to compare the plant knowledge and uses of the plants. Interviewees were Mexican immigrants in Yakima, Washington, and members from their place of origin, El Pedregal, Hidalgo, Mexico. This study examines how transnational migration affects plant knowledge present in a small rural community in Mexico and how migration affects plant use in the United States. I explore why the loss of ethnobotanical knowledge raises concerns for local ecosystem management and how some plant uses may only exist as cultural remnants.