Phylogenies reveal predictive power of traditional medicine in bioprospecting.

There is controversy about whether traditional medicine can guide drug discovery, and investment in bioprospecting informed by ethnobotanical data has fluctuated. One view is that traditionally used medicinal plants are not necessarily efficacious and there are no robust methods for distinguishing those which are most likely to be bioactive when selecting species for further testing. Here, we reconstruct a genus-level molecular phylogenetic tree representing the 20,000 species found in the floras of three disparate biodiversity hotspots: Nepal, New Zealand, and the Cape of South Africa. Borrowing phylogenetic methods from community ecology, we reveal significant clustering of the 1,500 traditionally used species, and provide a direct measure of the relatedness of the three medicinal floras. We demonstrate shared phylogenetic patterns across the floras: related plants from these regions are used to treat medical conditions in the same therapeutic areas. This finding strongly indicates independent discovery of plant efficacy, an interpretation corroborated by the presence of a significantly greater proportion of known bioactive species in these plant groups than in random samples. We conclude that phylogenetic cross-cultural comparisons can focus screening efforts on a subset of traditionally used plants that are richer in bioactive compounds, and could revitalize the use of traditional knowledge in bioprospecting.

The evolution of traditional knowledge: environment shapes medicinal plant use in Nepal.

Traditional knowledge is influenced by ancestry, inter-cultural diffusion and interaction with the natural environment. It is problematic to assess the contributions of these influences independently because closely related ethnic groups may also be geographically close, exposed to similar environments and able to exchange knowledge readily. Medicinal plant use is one of the most important components of traditional knowledge, since plants provide healthcare for up to 80% of the world's population. Here, we assess the significance of ancestry, geographical proximity of cultures and the environment in determining medicinal plant use for 12 ethnic groups in Nepal. Incorporating phylogenetic information to account for plant evolutionary relatedness, we calculate pairwise distances that describe differences in the ethnic groups' medicinal floras and floristic environments. We also determine linguistic relatedness and geographical separation for all pairs of ethnic groups. We show that medicinal uses are most similar when cultures are found in similar floristic environments. The correlation between medicinal flora and floristic environment was positive and strongly significant, in contrast to the effects of shared ancestry and geographical proximity. These findings demonstrate the importance of adaptation to local environments, even at small spatial scale, in shaping traditional knowledge during human cultural evolution.

Molecular phylogeny and evolutionary history of the Eurasiatic orchid genus Himantoglossum s.l. (Orchidaceae).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Lizard orchids of the genus Himantoglossum include many of Eurasia's most spectacular orchids, producing substantial spikes of showy flowers. However, until recently the genus had received only limited, and entirely traditional, systematic study. The aim of the current work was to provide a more robust molecular phylogeny in order to better understand the evolutionary relationships among species of particular conservation concern. METHODS: All putative species of Himantoglossum s.l. were sampled across its geographical range. A large subsample of the 153 populations studied contributed to an initial survey of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) ribotypes. Smaller subsets were then sequenced for four plastid regions and the first intron of the low-copy-number nuclear gene LEAFY. Rooted using Steveniella as outgroup, phylogenetic trees were generated using parsimony and Bayesian methods from each of the three datasets, supplemented with a ribotype network. KEY RESULTS: The resulting trees collectively determined the order of branching of the early divergent taxa as Himantoglossum comperianum > H. robertianum group > H. formosum, events that also involved significant morphological divergence. Relaxed molecular clock dating suggested that these divergences preceded the Pleistocene glaciations (the origin of the H. robertianum group may have coincided with the Messinian salinity crisis) and occurred in Asia Minor and/or the Caucasus. Among more controversial taxa of the H. hircinum-jankae clade, which are only subtly morphologically divergent, topological resolution was poorer and topological incongruence between datasets was consequently greater. CONCLUSIONS: Plastid sequence divergence is broadly consistent with prior, morphologically circumscribed taxa and indicates a division between H. hircinum-adriaticum to the west of the Carpathians and H. jankae-caprinum (plus local endemics) to the east, a distinction also suggested by nrITS ribotypes. LEAFY phylogenies are less congruent with prior taxonomic arrangements and include one likely example of paralogy. Himantoglossum metlesicsianum fully merits its IUCN Endangered status. Potentially significant genetic variation was detected within Steveniella satyrioides, H. robertianum and H. hircinum. However, confident circumscription of the more derived species of Himantoglossum s.s., including local endemics of hybrid origin, must await future morphometric and population-genetic analyses.

An account of the genus Cistanche (Orobanchaceae) in Iraq and taxonomic considerations in the Middle East.

Species limits in the genus Cistanche are poorly understood, despite the plants' long history of use in traditional herbal medicine and food across their range. Here we present a taxonomic account for the genus Cistanche in Iraq, where several taxa have been reported, most of them doubtfully. Using herbarium specimens, images of living material, and taxonomic literature, we found evidence of only one species occurring with certainty in Iraq: Cistanchetubulosa. We found no evidence for the occurrence of other Cistanche species in Iraq, including a putative new entity reported for the region. Our work highlights inconsistencies in the literature, and underscores the importance of examining multiple stable characters for delimiting species in the genus Cistanche.

Repeated upslope biome shifts in Saxifraga during late-Cenozoic climate cooling.

Mountains are among the most biodiverse places on Earth, and plant lineages that inhabit them have some of the highest speciation rates ever recorded. Plant diversity within the alpine zone - the elevation above which trees cannot grow-contributes significantly to overall diversity within mountain systems, but the origins of alpine plant diversity are poorly understood. Here, we quantify the processes that generate alpine plant diversity and their changing dynamics through time in Saxifraga (Saxifragaceae), an angiosperm genus that occurs predominantly in mountain systems. We present a time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic tree for the genus that is inferred from 329 low-copy nuclear loci and incorporates 73% (407) of known species. We show that upslope biome shifts into the alpine zone are considerably more prevalent than dispersal of alpine specialists between regions, and that the rate of upslope biome shifts increased markedly in the last 5 Myr, a timeframe concordant with a cooling and fluctuating climate that is likely to have increased the extent of the alpine zone. Furthermore, alpine zone specialists have lower speciation rates than generalists that occur inside and outside the alpine zone, and major speciation rate increases within Saxifraga significantly pre-date increased rates of upslope biome shifts. Specialisation to the alpine zone is not therefore associated with speciation rate increases. Taken together, this study presents a quantified and broad scale perspective of processes underpinning alpine plant diversity.

Convergent evolution of floral signals underlies the success of Neotropical orchids.

The great majority of plant species in the tropics require animals to achieve pollination, but the exact role of floral signals in attraction of animal pollinators is often debated. Many plants provide a floral reward to attract a guild of pollinators, and it has been proposed that floral signals of non-rewarding species may converge on those of rewarding species to exploit the relationship of the latter with their pollinators. In the orchid family (Orchidaceae), pollination is almost universally animal-mediated, but a third of species provide no floral reward, which suggests that deceptive pollination mechanisms are prevalent. Here, we examine floral colour and shape convergence in Neotropical plant communities, focusing on certain food-deceptive Oncidiinae orchids (e.g. Trichocentrum ascendens and Oncidium nebulosum) and rewarding species of Malpighiaceae. We show that the species from these two distantly related families are often more similar in floral colour and shape than expected by chance and propose that a system of multifarious floral mimicry--a form of Batesian mimicry that involves multiple models and is more complex than a simple one model-one mimic system--operates in these orchids. The same mimetic pollination system has evolved at least 14 times within the species-rich Oncidiinae throughout the Neotropics. These results help explain the extraordinary diversification of Neotropical orchids and highlight the complexity of plant-animal interactions.

Combined phylogenetic analyses reveal interfamilial relationships and patterns of floral evolution in the eudicot order Fabales.

Relationships between the four families placed in the angiosperm order Fabales (Leguminosae, Polygalaceae, Quillajaceae, Surianaceae) were hitherto poorly resolved. We combine published molecular data for the chloroplast regions matK and rbcL with 66 morphological characters surveyed for 73 ingroup and two outgroup species, and use Parsimony and Bayesian approaches to explore matrices with different missing data. All combined analyses using Parsimony recovered the topology Polygalaceae (Leguminosae (Quillajaceae + Surianaceae)). Bayesian analyses with matched morphological and molecular sampling recover the same topology, but analyses based on other data recover a different Bayesian topology: ((Polygalaceae + Leguminosae) (Quillajaceae + Surianaceae)). We explore the evolution of floral characters in the context of the more consistent topology: Polygalaceae (Leguminosae (Quillajaceae + Surianaceae)). This reveals synapomorphies for (Leguminosae (Quillajaceae + Surianaceae)) as the presence of free filaments and marginal/ventral placentation, for (Quillajaceae + Surianaceae) as pentamery and apocarpy, and for Leguminosae the presence of an abaxial median sepal and unicarpellate gynoecium. An octamerous androecium is synapomorphic for Polygalaceae. The development of papilionate flowers, and the evolutionary context in which these phenotypes appeared in Leguminosae and Polygalaceae, shows that the morphologies are convergent rather than synapomorphic within Fabales.

Dataset of pollination traits in Fabales.

The data presented in this paper is supporting the research article "Reconstructing an historical pollination syndrome: keel flowers" (Aygören Uluer et al., 2022). We present a dataset containing information on number of species, geographic distribution, floral type (keeled or not), presence or absence of fused petals, floral symmetry, presence or absence of a pentamerous corolla (petals+petaloid sepals in Polygalaceae), androecium type, presence or absence of enclosed reproductive organs, presence or absence of three distinct petal types (petals+ petaloid sepals in Polygalaceae), flower size, corolla size (i.e., in open flower) and/or filament size (i.e., entire filament size particularly in subfamily Caesalpinioideae), flower colour, UV reflectance, habit, height, inflorescence type and inflorescence size for 758 Fabales genera. The information was obtained from hundreds of appropriate, previously published sources. This the largest morphological dataset constructed for Fabales to date, and the data presented in this article can be used for morphology, biogeography, ancestral state, ancestral area analyses of any Fabales clades.

Reconstructing an historical pollination syndrome: keel flowers.

BACKGROUND: Keel flowers are bilaterally symmetrical, pentamerous flowers with three different petal types and reproductive organs enclosed by keel petals; generally there is also connation of floral parts such as stamens and keel petals. In this study, the evolution of keel flowers within the order Fabales is explored to investigate whether the establishment of this flower type within one of the species-rich families, the Fabaceae (Leguminosae), preceded and could have influenced the evolution of keel flowers in the Polygalaceae. We conducted molecular dating, and ancestral area and ancestral state analyses for a phylogeny constructed for 678 taxa using published matK, rbcL and trnL plastid gene regions. RESULTS: We reveal the temporal and spatial origins of keel flowers and traits associated with pollinators, specifically floral symmetry, the presence or absence of a pentamerous corolla and three distinct petal types, the presence or absence of enclosed reproductive organs, androecium types, inflorescence types, inflorescence size, flower size, plant height and habit. Ancestral area reconstructions show that at the time keel flowers appeared in the Polygaleae, subfamily Papilionoideae of the Fabaceae was already distributed almost globally; at least eight clades of the Papilionoideae had keel flowers with a functional morphology broadly similar to the morphology of the first evolving Polygaleae flowers. CONCLUSIONS: The multiple origins of keel flowers within angiosperms likely represent convergence due to bee specialization, and therefore pollinator pressure. In the case of the Fabales, the first evolving keel flowers of Polygaleae have a functional morphology that corresponds with keel flowers of species of the Papilionoideae already present in the environment. These findings are consistent with the keel-flowered Polygaleae exploiting pollinators of keel-flowered Papilionoideae. The current study is the first to use ancestral reconstructions of traits associated with pollination to demonstrate that the multiple evolutionary origins of the keel flower pollinator syndrome in Fabales are consistent with, though do not prove, mimicry.

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora.

BACKGROUND: The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora--South Africa's biodiversity hotspot--through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. RESULTS: Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. CONCLUSIONS: Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record.

Molecular systematics of the Cactaceae.

Bayesian, maximum-likelihood, and maximum-parsimony phylogenies, constructed using nucleotide sequences from the plastid gene region trnK-matK, are employed to investigate relationships within the Cactaceae. These phylogenies sample 666 plants representing 532 of the 1438 species recognized in the family. All four subfamilies, all nine tribes, and 69% of currently recognized genera of Cactaceae are sampled. We found strong support for three of the four currently recognized subfamilies, although relationships between subfamilies were not well defined. Major clades recovered within the largest subfamilies, Opuntioideae and Cactoideae, are reviewed; only three of the nine currently accepted tribes delimited within these subfamilies, the Cacteae, Rhipsalideae, and Opuntieae, are monophyletic, although the Opuntieae were recovered in only the Bayesian and maximum-likelihood analyses, not in the maximum-parsimony analysis, and more data are needed to reveal the status of the Cylindropuntieae, which may yet be monophyletic. Of the 42 genera with more than one exemplar in our study, only 17 were monophyletic; 14 of these genera were from subfamily Cactoideae and three from subfamily Opuntioideae. We present a synopsis of the status of the currently recognized genera. © The Willi Hennig Society 2011.

Ewé: a web-based ethnobotanical database for storing and analysing data.

Ethnobotanical databases serve as repositories of traditional knowledge (TK), either at international or local scales. By documenting plant species with traditional use, and most importantly, the applications and modes of use of such species, ethnobotanical databases play a role in the conservation of TK and also provide access to information that could improve hypothesis generation and testing in ethnobotanical studies. Brazil has a rich medicinal flora and a rich cultural landscape. Nevertheless, cultural change and ecological degradation can lead to loss of TK. Here, we present an online database developed with open-source tools with a capacity to include all medicinal flora of Brazil. We present test data for the Leguminosae comprising a total of 2078 records, referred to here as use reports, including data compiled from literature and herbarium sources. Unlike existing databases, Ewé provides tools for the visualization of large datasets, facilitating hypothesis generation and meta-analyses. The Ewé database is currently available at www.ewedb.com.

Genetic structure and systematic relationships within the Ophrys fuciflora aggregate (Orchidaceae: Orchidinae): high diversity in Kent and a wind-induced discontinuity bisecting the Adriatic.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A recent phylogenetic study based on multiple datasets is used as the framework for a more detailed examination of one of the ten molecularly circumscribed groups identified, the Ophrys fuciflora aggregate. The group is highly morphologically variable, prone to phenotypic convergence, shows low levels of sequence divergence and contains an unusually large proportion of threatened taxa, including the rarest Ophrys species in the UK. The aims of this study were to (a) circumscribe minimum resolvable genetically distinct entities within the O. fuciflora aggregate, and (b) assess the likelihood of gene flow between genetically and geographically distinct entities at the species and population levels. METHODS: Fifty-five accessions sampled in Europe and Asia Minor from the O. fuciflora aggregate were studied using the AFLP genetic fingerprinting technique to evaluate levels of infraspecific and interspecific genetic variation and to assess genetic relationships between UK populations of O. fuciflora s.s. in Kent and in their continental European and Mediterranean counterparts. KEY RESULTS: The two genetically and geographically distinct groups recovered, one located in England and central Europe and one in south-eastern Europe, are incongruent with current species delimitation within the aggregate as a whole and also within O. fuciflora s.s. Genetic diversity is higher in Kent than in the rest of western and central Europe. CONCLUSIONS: Gene flow is more likely to occur between populations in closer geographical proximity than those that are morphologically more similar. Little if any gene flow occurs between populations located in the south-eastern Mediterranean and those dispersed throughout the remainder of the distribution, revealing a genetic discontinuity that runs north-south through the Adriatic. This discontinuity is also evident in other clades of Ophrys and is tentatively attributed to the long-term influence of prevailing winds on the long-distance distribution of pollinia and especially seeds. A cline of gene flow connects populations from Kent and central and southern Europe; these individuals should therefore be considered part of an extensive meta-population. Gene flow is also evident among populations from Kent, which appear to constitute a single metapopulation. They show some evidence of hybridization, and possibly also introgression, with O. apifera.

Phylogenomic Approaches to DNA Barcoding of Herbal Medicines: Developing Clade-Specific Diagnostic Characters for Berberis.

DNA barcoding of herbal medicines has been mainly concerned with authentication of products in trade and has raised awareness of species substitution and adulteration. More recently DNA barcodes have been included in pharmacopoeias, providing tools for regulatory purposes. The commonly used DNA barcoding regions in plants often fail to resolve identification to species level. This can be especially challenging in evolutionarily complex groups where incipient or reticulate speciation is ongoing. In this study, we take a phylogenomic approach, analyzing whole plastid sequences from the evolutionarily complex genus Berberis in order to develop DNA barcodes for the medicinally important species Berberis aristata. The phylogeny reconstructed from an alignment of ∼160 kbp of chloroplast DNA for 57 species reveals that the pharmacopoeial species in question is polyphyletic, complicating development of a species-specific DNA barcode. Instead we propose a DNA barcode that is clade specific, using our phylogeny to define Operational Phylogenetic Units (OPUs). The plastid alignment is then reduced to small, informative DNA regions including nucleotides diagnostic for these OPUs. These DNA barcodes were tested on commercial samples, and shown to discriminate plants in trade and therefore to meet the requirement of a pharmacopoeial standard. The proposed method provides an innovative approach for inferring DNA barcodes for evolutionarily complex groups for regulatory purposes and quality control.

Friends or relatives? Phylogenetics and species delimitation in the controversial European orchid genus Ophrys.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Highly variable, yet possibly convergent, morphology and lack of sequence variation have severely hindered production of a robust phylogenetic framework for the genus Ophrys. The aim of this study is to produce this framework as a basis for more rigorous species delimitation and conservation recommendations. METHODS: Nuclear and plastid DNA sequencing and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were performed on 85 accessions of Ophrys, spanning the full range of species aggregates currently recognized. Data were analysed using a combination of parsimony and Bayesian tree-building techniques and by principal co-ordinates analysis. KEY RESULTS: Complementary phylogenetic analyses and ordinations using nuclear, plastid and AFLP datasets identify ten genetically distinct groups (six robust) within the genus that may in turn be grouped into three sections (treated as subgenera by some authors). Additionally, genetic evidence is provided for a close relationship between the O. tenthredinifera, O. bombyliflora and O. speculum groups. The combination of these analytical techniques provides new insights into Ophrys systematics, notably recognition of the novel O. umbilicata group. CONCLUSIONS: Heterogeneous copies of the nuclear ITS region show that some putative Ophrys species arose through hybridization rather than divergent speciation. The supposedly highly specific pseudocopulatory pollination syndrome of Ophrys is demonstrably 'leaky', suggesting that the genus has been substantially over-divided at the species level.

Comparative phylogenetic methods and the cultural evolution of medicinal plant use.

Human life depends on plant biodiversity and the ways in which plants are used are culturally determined. Whilst anthropologists have used phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) to gain an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the evolution of political, religious, social and material culture, plant use has been almost entirely neglected. Medicinal plants are of special interest because of their role in maintaining people's health across the world. PCMs in particular, and cultural evolutionary theory in general, provide a framework in which to study the diversity of medicinal plant applications cross-culturally, and to infer changes in plant use over time. These methods can be applied to single medicinal plants as well as the entire set of plants used by a culture for medicine, and they account for the non-independence of data when testing for floristic, cultural or other drivers of plant use. With cultural, biological and linguistic diversity under threat, gaining a deeper and broader understanding of the variation of medicinal plant use through time and space is pressing.

Which Plants Used in Ethnomedicine Are Characterized? Phylogenetic Patterns in Traditional Use Related to Research Effort.

Plants are important resources in healthcare and for producing pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmacological and phytochemical characterization contributes to both the safe use of herbal medicines and the identification of leads for drug development. However, there is no recent assessment of the proportion of plants used in ethnomedicine that are characterized in this way. Further, although it is increasingly apparent that plants used in ethnomedicine belong to preferred phylogenetic lineages, it is not known how this relates to the focusing of research effort. Here we identify species and lineages rich in ethnomedicinal use and develop methods to describe how well they are known pharmacologically and/or phytochemically. We find 50% of plant species of the family Leguminosae used in ethnomedicine in Brazil, a geographical area where plants are an important part of healthcare, have been the focus of either phytochemical screening or testing for biological activity. Plant species which have more use reports are studied significantly more often (p < 0.05). Considering the taxonomic distribution of use, 70% of genera that include species with ethnomedicinal use have been studied, compared to 19% of genera with no reported use. Using a novel phylogenetic framework, we show that lineages with significantly greater numbers of ethnomedicinal species are phylogenetically over-dispersed within the family, highlighting the diversity of species used. "Hotnode clades" contain 16% of species but 46% of ethnomedicinally-used species. The ethnomedicinal species in hotnode clades have more use reports per species (p < 0.05), suggesting they are more frequently used. They are also more likely to be characterized pharmacologically and/or phytochemically. Research focus has followed traditional use by these measures, at least for these Brazilian plants, yet ethnomedicinal species yielding candidate drugs, raising public health concerns and more intensively studied lie outside of the hotnode clades.

The role of biotic and abiotic factors in evolution of ant dispersal in the milkwort family (polygalaceae).

A phylogenetic approach was taken to investigate the evolutionary history of seed appendages in the plant family Polygalaceae (Fabales) and determine which factors might be associated with evolution of elaiosomes through comparisons to abiotic (climate) and biotic (ant species number and abundance) timelines. Molecular datasets from three plastid regions representing 160 species were used to reconstruct a phylogenetic tree of the order Fabales, focusing on Polygalaceae. Bayesian dating methods were used to estimate the age of the appearance of ant-dispersed elaiosomes in Polygalaceae, shown by likelihood optimizations to have a single origin in the family. Topology-based tests indicated a diversification rate shift associated with appearance of caruncular elaiosomes. We show that evolution of the caruncular elaiosome type currently associated with ant dispersal occurred 54.0-50.5 million year ago. This is long after an estimated increase in ant lineages in the Late Cretaceous based on molecular studies, but broadly concomitant with increasing global temperatures culminating in the Late Paleocene-Early Eocene thermal maxima. These results suggest that although most major ant clades were present when elaiosomes appeared, the environmental significance of elaiosomes may have been an important factor in success of elaiosome-bearing lineages. Ecological abundance of ants is perhaps more important than lineage numbers in determining significance of ant dispersal. Thus, our observation that elaiosomes predate increased ecological abundance of ants inferred from amber deposits could be indicative of an initial abiotic environmental function.

Medicinal plants used by women in Mecca: urban, Muslim and gendered knowledge.

BACKGROUND: This study explores medicinal plant knowledge and use among Muslim women in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Ethnobotanical research in the region has focused on rural populations and male herbal healers in cities, and based on these few studies, it is suggested that medicinal plant knowledge may be eroding. Here, we document lay, female knowledge of medicinal plants in an urban centre, interpreting findings in the light of the growing field of urban ethnobotany and gendered knowledge and in an Islamic context. METHODS: Free-listing, structured and semi-structured interviews were used to document the extent of medicinal plant knowledge among 32 Meccan women. Vernacular names, modes of preparation and application, intended therapeutic use and emic toxicological remarks were recorded. Women were asked where they learnt about medicinal plants and if and when they preferred using medicinal plants over biomedical resources. Prior informed consent was always obtained. We compared the list of medicinal plants used by these Meccan women with medicinal plants previously documented in published literature. RESULTS: One hundred eighteen vernacular names were collected, corresponding to approximately 110 plants, including one algae. Of these, 95 were identified at the species level and 39 (41%) had not been previously cited in Saudi Arabian medicinal plant literature. Almost one half of the plants cited are food and flavouring plants. Meccan women interviewed learn about medicinal plants from their social network, mass media and written sources, and combine biomedical and medicinal plant health care. However, younger women more often prefer biomedical resources and learn from written sources and mass media. CONCLUSIONS: The fairly small number of interviews conducted in this study was sufficient to reveal the singular body of medicinal plant knowledge held by women in Mecca and applied to treat common ailments. Plant availability in local shops and markets and inclusion in religious texts seem to shape the botanical diversity used by the Meccan women interviewed, and the use of foods and spices medicinally could be a global feature of urban ethnobotany. Ethnobotanical knowledge among women in Islamic communities may be changing due to access to mass media and biomedicine. We recognise the lack of documentation of the diversity of medicinal plant knowledge in the Arabian Peninsula and an opportunity to better understand gendered urban and rural knowledge.

Correction to: Medicinal plants used by women in Mecca: urban, Muslim and gendered knowledge.

In the original publication [1] were the Arabic letters in Table 2 incorrect. The corrected version of Table 2 can be found as Additional file 1 in this Erratum.