Prospecting and characterization of plants with different uses in agricultural exploitations of Pastaza province, Ecuador

Abstract

The present study was aimed at realizing prospecting and characterization studies of the flora of different agricultural climatic conditions in Pastaza, Mera and Santa Clara cantons allowing better knowledge of the plant species by agricultural producers of Pastaza province in Ecuador. For that a survey was applied to 213 producers. The analysis of the qualitative data
shows as main variation sources in the use of species the canton factor, followed by the agricultural climatic components. While in the quantitative data four components were formed with 62 % of the accumulated variance and 173 species used for different purposes were identified. The cluster analysis for the categories food and human medicine, environmental and ritual use, allowed selecting for later studies three species of asexual multiplication and 10 of sexual propagation, from these four did not show germination, four required pre-germinative treatments, two did not and initial growth in six species was assessed. It is concluded that in the zone there is large variety of use of plant species being the geographical component the highest source of variation. The main uses are food and human medicine. There are species that have good propagation and multiplication capacity while others require pre-germinative treatments. In plant growth stand out lnga spectabilis Inga edulis and Brugmansia suaveolens.