Cultural importance, availability, and conservation status of Spanish medicinal plants. Implications for sustainability

Abstract The harvest of wild plants with medicinal uses is increasing globally, but we know little of the effects of non-commercial harvesting in their conservation status. Here, we explore the connection between the cultural importance of the 1,376 wild medicinal vascular plants traditionally used in Spain for self-treatment (22% of the autochthonous flora, being 16% endemic) and their availability, conservation, and legal protection status, and discuss the implication of our results for sustainability. A species cultural importance is positively correlated with its abundance (ρ = 0.466) and occupancy area (ρ = 0.495). Only 6% of the wild medicinal plants traditionally used in Spain are fully or largely affected by protection measures. Most species used for self-treatment in Spain are common, highly available, and not threatened. This suggests that domestic use does not lead to overexploitation, and proves the sustainability of this knowledge system.