Out of the 40 people interviewed, 18 mentioned the gathering of mushrooms and stated the importance of mushrooms in culture, economics, and diet. This dataset is small since it was incidental knowledge gathered through interviews and participant observation on plant knowledge; it does not fully capture the extensive deep and rich mycological knowledge rooted in this region. Most people go out with their families and gather mushrooms in the summer and fall. It is a recreational and seasonal activity that bonds generations. For example, one elder mentioned, “I take my grandson and we go together to pick mushrooms. I show him the place where mushrooms grow.” [Mykola ] Participant observation over the course of a year as well as an additional summer field season reveals the importance of mushrooms. Considering cultural importance , frequency of citation , relative frequency of citation , relative importance , and use reports among mushrooms noted, fly agaric ranks first and penny bun ranks second. Chanterelle ranks third in terms of cultural importance and relative importance , and ranks fourth in terms of relative frequency of citation . The ranking of the frequency of citation and relative frequency of citation is as follows: fly agaric , followed by penny bun and common stink horn . A total of 68 UR were provided by participants . In Appendix A, Table 5A shows all mushrooms, uses and their corresponding fidelity levels. Amanita mascara is abundant in the region,cannabis equipment growing in association with a diversity of tree species including pine, fir, birch, cedar, oak, and spruce .
Fly agaric, noted for its toxicity, is typically used in medicinal cancer treatment. Use of this fungus is not ubiquitous but rather specialized among experts due to its toxicity. Two stories were told in interviews whereby a man was sick and decided to poison himself by cooking and ingesting the fly agaric. Instead, the man ate it and went to sleep. He woke up feeling better, and eventually recovered. Its toxicity is noted as well as tincture preparation discussed extensively. One participant stated that fly agaric is even considered delicious but needs to be specifically prepared to be edible. While it was discussed the most, it is sparingly gathered and if gathered, rarely. Its bold presence in the analysis has more to do with its symbolic prevalence and ecologically frequent presence in the region than its use in everyday life. For this reason, it also holds symbolic importance. Penny bun, plentiful in the region, grows in symbiosis with pine and spruce tree species. It is gathered following local ecological cues and is symbolically important in Hutsul culture. Penny bun, typically eaten, is noted to be of great importance, culturally, economically, and nutritionally. Although there are other mushrooms that are edible in the Carpathian Mountains, this mushroom is preferred; its use is frequent in traditional foods . Extremely important in day-to-day life, most people gather this mushroom as a source of nutrition as well as source of secondary or tertiary income. One participant noted its medicinal use as a tincture, used topically to treat pain. Chanterelle, commonly found in coniferous forests, is both a source of food and medicine. As an economically important mushroom, these mushrooms are typically sold at a higher price than other mushrooms.
Common stink horn , which has distinctive physical characteristics, is also used for cancer treatment. While it is considered rare in local forests, it is still present. Lastly, Red pine mushroom was not explicitly mentioned in interviews is gathered seasonally . Culturally important species derive their importance and presence in culture from their various uses as stated by Hutsul community members. Why do Hutsul community members gather these species? What uses are continually cited as being relevant, useful, and salient? Three commonly cited uses emerged in my analysis – medicinal , food and ecological uses . By exploring the nuances of medicinal and food uses as stated by Hutsul community members, the reliance on landscape as an ethnoecosystem serving as a safety net emerges . Looking closer at the medicinal uses in the region, 92 taxa were used for medicinal purposes, including the unique documentation of two lichen species and three fungi species . Among the taxa noted, 17 species were explicitly noted to be given to children treating ailments including fevers , warts , digestion issues , coughs , colds and wound treatment . Several plants also provide a source of vitamin C , while others contain sedative properties . Out of the 62 medicinal use categories, the most cited medicinal categories include: 1) treating various stomach ailments , 2) reducing fever , 3) providing a source of vitamin C , 4) regulating blood pressure , and 5) treating topical wounds . Two of the most cited medicinal categories address preventative care concerns – providing a source of vitamin C and regulating blood pressure while the other three address treatment of an ailment . To date, research in the southeastern Hutsul region highlights how the policies of sociopolitical change and geography influence changes, trends and differences seen in Hutsul ethnobotanical plant uses . While governance structures play a role, Hutsul culture and knowledge transmission could also cross these borders. As seen in Table 2.5a, there are 31 plant taxa and corresponding medicinal uses shared by Hutsul communities on both sides of the Ukrainian-Romanian border as well as in Hutsul communities in the historical cultural center . Thirteen of these noted species are also in the top 20 species of noted cultural importance, showing high fidelity levels in medicinal plant use across borders, and therefore cultural significance in Hutsulshchyna due to their prevalence, breadth, depth, and continuity of use.
When considering previous studies alongside this study, St. John’s wort , bilberry , raspberry , mint and arnica all share high cultural importance in the Hutsul landscape on both sides of the border, occupying diverse habitats. As noted in a recent study, Hutsul interviewees in Bukovina reflected a sense of pride in their forests, underlining the strong curative power of medicinal plants derived from these forests . While these species are culturally important, by extension the various habitats in which they are nested are also greater or at least of equal importance . Each of these species is found in a range of habitats. Raspberry, St. John’s wort and bilberry are found in five habitats, while arnica is found in four habitats and mint in three habitats. These plants exhibit generalist life strategies and inhabit a broad range of environments with a varying range of human interaction. Of the 20 top culturally important species and their habitat ranges, the most cited habitats that species grew were polonynas, followed by woodlands, forests, meadows, tolokas, roadsides, pastures, alpine meadows, gardens, and fields . Species that were specialists, such as high elevation species occupied a narrower ecological range yet exhibited high cultural importance, specifically for their curative medicinal qualities. Interestingly, several species that inhabit almost all ten habitats did not share high cultural importance according to the indices. An explanation for this could be that these plants are available and accessible and therefore not specifically sought out due to their accessibility, availability, and ubiquity. Two habitats unique and important in Hutsul landscapes are tolokas and polonynas. Tolokas are generationally held pastures typically located on a nearby hillside, and passed down from one generation to the next, ensuring both connection and access to land and species. Polonynas are communal summer alpine meadows,vertical grow shelf which provide grazing for communal livestock. All livelihoods of Carpathian highland people are somehow tethered culturally or economically to the maintenance of polonynas . Tolokas and polonynas have coevolved with agricultural practices and rely on human interaction to maintain community function, structure, and composition . The most culturally important species inhabit a diversity of habitats and are commonly encountered . This is due to their visibility in the landscape and their accessibility to the community. It is the habitats nested within larger ecosystems that harbor a multitude of complex relationships between community members and landscape, providing medicine, fodder, firewood, clean water, and sustenance. Plants, mushrooms, and lichen serve as the multi-directional tether between humans and land; uses are one means of defining and understanding these relationships. TEK is the reservoir of place-based knowledge that illuminates critical ecological relationships seen through language, storytelling, art, rituals, and sensory experiences guiding gathering practices.While indices tangentially address cultural importance on the scale of frequency of use and citation, importance, fidelity levels, other factors, such as accessibility and availability are missing. By exploring the place-based knowledge that TEK encompasses, issues of accessibility versus availability to a habitat arise.
The terms “available” and “accessible” tend to be used interchangeably; a species that is accessible is most likely available. However, a plant that is abundantly available, may not be accessible due to various socio-political or environmental factors. Accessibility implies ease of retrieval, an ability to interact with a species, through gathering, within a landscape. Availability is the first step to accessibility in terms of gathering a specific species. For example, species that are endangered are less available, less persistent in the landscape, and therefore less accessible as well. On the other hand, some plants may be preferred over others due to medicinal and/or cultural factors, yet constrained by their level of accessibility. For example, in the Hutsul context, a forest raspberry may be preferred due to its medicinal property, but a garden raspberry is more accessible and therefore more commonly used as food. While the forest raspberry has greater medicinal importance, its reduced immediate accessibility plays a considerable role in plant use and relationality in use. The importance of accessibility arises when delving deeper into land stewardship policy and implications for maintaining livelihood for forest-dependent communities such as Hutsuls. Scholars Ribot and Peluso define access as the “ability to derive benefit from things” . They state that the notion of “being able” incorporates pivotal social relationships, highlighting power dynamics, that underpin accessibility. Further, Ribot and Peluso exemplify the notion of access as networks of power that allow actors to obtain, direct and keep access. In the Hutsulshchyna, practical accessibility to forests and meadows can be hindered and redefined by local government officials, logging companies, borders, state parks and outdated laws. A plant may be available in relative abundance in a habitat, but not accessible. Access to a plant and rarity are often conjoined by shared geography , but not always. Rarity of a plant can arise due to negligent harvesting practices seen in commercial harvesting, illegal logging, climate change, historical colonial management practices thereby making the plant less available to the local populations that depend on them . If the relationship to the plant is weakened due to its rarity, it can impact the culture surrounding its use such as Edelweiss . For example, interwar efforts in the region to fertilize pastures and meadows with manure caused the succession of tall grasses, eventually leading to the endangerment of Edelweiss, a once culturally important yet very endangered plant. Historically, there were many stories, songs and folklore surrounding this plant. Today, its presence on alpine pastures is rare and its cultural significance is also waning . In interviews, it was only mentioned once as an endangered species. Therefore, incorporating a more explicit accessibility factor into a cultural importance index could provide important community-driven insights regarding local forestry policy. This factor would acknowledge the difference between availability which denotes the relationship between species and environment, and accessibility which emphasizes governance factors surrounding its use. The definition of accessibility includes the ability to benefit from species, habitat, people, and institutions while property underlines socially acknowledged claims or rights, by law, tradition or custom . Since 1991, Ukraine has experienced more democratic governance. However, under Soviet rule, private property was surrendered to the Soviet government, causing access to places to become an even more important function and sign of resistance. Although Marxist philosophy states that labor with land or resource use takes the place of state institutions of property, Communist policies in Hutsulshchyna saw even ownership of cattle as thievery of state property, essentially eroding traditional governance in the region. Policies included culturally destructive practices such as resettlement actions, Sovietization, and depopulation measures.