Flora of Puna: Botanical Resources on a Neotropical Island

In this book botany, ethnography, and history are combined to describe the use of plant resources on Puna Island in the Gulf of Guayadquil near the equator on South America's west coast. Evidence of sustained human settlements on the island dates back more than 5000 years. The island and its plants are intricately linked to the development of the earliest pre-Columbian agrarian and maritime civilizations on the continent. Spanish naval engineers and sailors, the first Europeans to explore the South American west coast, were impressed by the indigenous balsa rafts with sails made of domesticated native cotton. Lima, the Peruvian capital, was built during the 16th century on mangrove woods imported from Puna Island.

This is the first flora for Puna Island, the largest island on the Pacific coast of South America. The flora is documented with descriptions and keys to 428 native and naturalized plant species. Many of the plant species found on Puna Island are endemic to southwest Ecuador and adjacent Peru and one third of the species are shared with the Galapagos Islands. Current uses of the plants are described. Vernacular plant names, some of which have indigenous roots, indicate that separate dialect areas existed on the island. This study offers more than simple plant information; it also provides insight into the conditions under which the inhabitants of western South America lived and used local plant resources over a large pre-historical and historical time span.