Traditional non-crop management of the Wixáritari (Huichol) of western Mexico

A potentially large pool of biodiversity generated through traditional plant management may be overlooked due to researchers’ biases toward familiar patterns of plant manipulation. Various non-agricultural plant management practices which favor certain phenotypes during weeding, transplanting, protecting, or encouraging of wild plants have been demonstrated to drive divergence between wild and managed populations. The Wixárika, an indigenous group in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains of Mexico, carry out a number of management regimes with the potential consequence of altering frequencies of preferred traits in non-agricultural populations. Examples include transporting propagules from non-bitter-seeded Pithecellobium dulce trees to villages, sparing from weeding Oxalis hernandezii individuals with favored characteristics, and transporting especially productive fruit trees to springs in order to provide food for water carriers. Documenting these practices is the first part of a broader study that will also quantify divergences between wild plants and populations managed by the Wixárika.