Cultural and Ecosystem Services of Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) in the Naxi and Tibetan Highlands of NW Yunnan, China.

Abstract

Naxi, Tibetan, Bai, Yi, and Han communities in the Hengduan Mountain region of China’s western Yunnan have an extensive history of cultivating flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa [Sweet] Nakai; Rosaceae; Fig. 1). Flowering quince is cultivated and utilized by communities for food, medicine, and as a windbreak barrier and soil protector at the edges of their fields and gardens (Gao et al. 2011). The Hengduan Mountains are characterized by limited fertile land and cultivated fields that have relatively low productivity. Socio–linguistic groups living in the area for hundreds of years have developed ecological knowledge regarding suitable plants to cultivate in order to support community wellbeing in this extreme habitat. This study presents an ethnobotanical profile of flowering quince and seeks to understand the cultural and ecosystem services it provides to communities in the Hengduan Mountain region. The main objective of this study is to understand the rationale for its traditional cultivation and to explore the potential commercial value of flowering quince.