The characteristics of traditional Baiku Yao homegardens

Baiku Yao depends on natural resources for food and other domestic products for their daily needs. Therefore, they greatly respect nature and offer prayers for nature in their daily routine. They frequently use plants like Caesalpinia decapetala, Pterolobium punctatum, and Maclura cochinchinensis to make living fences (Fig. 2) for the homegardens, which they believe the living shrubs are robust. Also, they greatly respect the prominent and old trees growing near the houses (sometimes near or in the homegardens as part of the homegarden systems). Thus, they keep and protect most of the large and old trees at the village entrance or near houses to maintain shade, cool, and landscaping. According to all of our participants, every Baiku Yao believes that big trees next to homes are sacred, and they protect the village and its prosperity. They also think that destroying a sacred tree will destroy the village's Feng shui and negatively affect future generations' well-being. For example, Keteleeria davidiana var. calcarea tree, usually found near the homegardens or houses, is believed to be inhabited by gods (because its branches are relatively flat and suitable for gods to live). As a national second-class protected plant in China, Keteleeria davidiana var. calcarea has been particularly well protected in the Baiku Yao area.

Fig. 2

Baiku Yao mostly lives in mountainous areas and usually has few land holdings. Thus, their traditional homegardens are also very small (less than 10 square meters on average, Fig. 2). Locally, however, the homegarden space utilization efficiency is extremely high, and the space is clearly structured and hierarchical according to our observations. On the periphery, the fences of homegardens are mainly wild or cultivated plants with certain functions. Local people believe that a living fence is more stable and can increase the space use efficiency of homegardens. For example, planting Morus alba, Broussonetia papyrifera, and some fruit trees as fences is very common in the Baiku Yao area. In addition, the lower-layer space is often planted with shade-tolerant spices or medicinal herbs. Seasonal vegetables are usually cultivated in the middle area of homegardens. For example, during the winter and the spring, they usually grow Brassica rapa subsp. Campestris, Brassica juncea, and Spinacia oleracea, while during the summer, they usually grow Cucurbita moschata, Vigna unguiculata, Glycine max, and Phaseolus vulgaris.

The Baiku Yao people are well aware of the importance of maintaining high species diversity in their homegardens to fulfill their daily requirements. According to their living strategy, due to the poor soil and a changeable climate, the benefits of planting a single species may be low or risky, so planting a variety of plants can reduce the risk as much as possible and obtain better returns. The locals also believe that high plant diversity can effectively reduce the harm from pests or plant diseases. The traditional local philosophy of maintaining the homegarden system reflects the wisdom of the Baiku Yao people.

Plant diversity in Baiku Yao homegardens

As shown in Table 1, 213 species were identified in the homegardens of Baiku Yao, belonging to 172 genera and 80 families. The commonly represented families were Poaceae (15 species), Fabaceae (12 species), Asteraceae (9 species), Rosaceae (8 species), Rutaceae (8 species), and Solanaceae (8 species), most of which are edible and ornamental plants.

Table 1 Inventory of homegarden plants in Baiku Yao area

Herbaceous plants (101 species; 47.42%) are the dominant components of Baiku Yao homegardens, followed by trees (61 species; 28.64%), shrubs (31 species; 14.55%), and lianas (20 species; 9.39%). The rich species diversity and multiple layers of planting are the characteristic features of Baiku Yao homegardens.

Among the four investigated villages, Yaoshan Village had the highest diversity of homegarden plants (137 species; 64.32%), followed by Yaozhai Village (124 species; 58.22%), Huaili Village (119 species; 53.99%) and Duonu Community (47 species; 22.07%). The statistics in Fig. 3 show that Baiku Yao residing in Yaoshan Village have well-developed diversity of homegarden plants during relocation. Unlike the traditional homegardens in ancient Baiku Yao villages, ornamental plants are the key components of homegardens in Yaoshan. With increasing local tourism, the demand for ornamental species has increased. The traditional ancient villages (Yaozhai and Huaili Village) of Baiku Yao mainly cultivate food plants and medicinal plants in their homegardens to sustain their daily livelihood. Moreover, these two ancient villages have not been exposed to tourism; therefore, they maintain only those species they require for their own consumption, leading to similar species numbers in their homegardens. In contrast, Duonu Community is one of the newly built relocated villages for Baiku Yao. Therefore, their homegardens are still in the initial development and have less species diversity. According to observations, in Duonu Community, local people mainly grow ornamental species such as Podocarpus macrophyllus, Zoysia japonica, Bambusa ventricosa, and Bambusa vulgaris 'Vittata'.

Fig. 3

Comparison of species numbers among different villages

In this study, the JI value is used to express the similarity of homegarden plants in four villages (Fig. 4); the higher the JI value is, the higher the similarity of homegarden plants between the two villages [5]. According to the calculation, Yaozhai Village and Huaili Village had the highest JI values (59.87%), reflecting the very high similarity of homegarden plants and indicating the frequent communication and exchange of traditional knowledge between these two ancient Baiku Yao villages. The similarity between Yaoshan and Yaozhai (41.85%) and Yaoshan and Huaili (32.64%) also seems relatively good. Compared to Duonu Community, Yaoshan villagers may communicate more with ancient villages and practice cultivating different homegarden plants even after relocation. However, the lower similarity of homegarden plants of Duonu Community with other villages, such as Yaozhai (25.74%), Huaili (24.81%), and Yaoshan (21.05%), could be linked to the limited period since their recent relocation. Most of the homegardens have not started cultivating crops or transplanted wild plants.

Fig. 4

JI value of homegarden plants among four villages

Sources of homegarden plants

Homegarden plants of Baiku Yao normally come from various sources, such as (i) primary species (originally found in the locality even before any human interventions, 27 species), (ii) the wild environment (transplanted from the wild, 35 species) and (iii) neighborhood exchanges (71 species). Propagules (i.e., seeds and seedlings) of some species are purchased from the market (78 species), and some species are self-preserved (27 species) by Baiku Yao to maintain their homegardens (Fig. 5). In relocated villages, the local government also encourages them to grow ornamental species (21 species) and provides them with planting material to enhance their livelihood and decorate the community. Many homegarden plant provenances come from multiple sources, such as Perilla frutescens, Agastache rugosa, and Zea mays, from both markets and self-preservation; Acorus tatarinowii comes not only from the wild but also from neighbor sharing. According to the investigation, among all villages we visited, market purchases contributed the most to maintaining Baiku Yao homegardens (36.62%), followed by neighborhood sharing (33.33%), wild (16.43%), primary species (12.68%), government issuance (9.86%) and self-preserved species (7.98%).

Fig. 5

Heatmap of plant sources of homegarden plants in Baiku Yao villages

According to Fig. 5, most of the homegarden plants in ancient villages were from neighbor sharing (61 species in Yaozhai and 51 species in Huaili), followed by purchasing from the market (40 species in Yaozhai, 31 species in Huaili) and self-preservation species (26 species in Yaozhai, 24 species in Huaili). However, in Yaoshan, an early relocated village, most homegarden plants were purchased from the market (55 species), followed by neighbor sharing (48 species). According to the interviews, Yaoshan villagers depend on exchange plants with other villages for complementary resources. However, in Duonu Community, which was recently relocated, homegarden plants mainly come from neighbor sharing (18 species) and market purchases (16 species).

The introduction of homegarden plants from neighbor-sharing accounts for a very high proportion in the four villages, indicating the presence of frequent internal communication in Baiku Yao village; they have a regular seed and seedling exchange network. Moreover, Baiku Yao has a high degree of recognition of food, culture, aesthetic appreciation, and consistent living habits. We also observed that a certain number of primary species are common in the homegardens of each study village, of which Huaili (21 species) is the highest, indicating worship and respect for nature among Baiku Yao, who make full use of the value of primary plants in homegarden design. As an ancient village, Huaili has well preserved and inherited the life concept of Baiku Yao.

Analysis of the functions of homegarden plants

The homegarden plants of Baiku Yao have a wide range of uses. We classified these plants into 11 types (Fig. 6) based on their use value, including medicine, timber, ornamental, food, foraging, veterinary medicine, religious rites, sacred trees, fences, dyes, and others (cigarettes, beauty, rope, and treat Gudu, a poison produced by venomous insects or evil curses). Edible plants accounted for the majority (90 species), followed by ornamentals (72 species), medicine (62 species), forage (28 species), veterinary medicine (11 species), religious rituals (11 species), timber (10 species), fences (10 species), dyes (8 species), and sacred trees (7 species).

Fig. 6

Heatmap of plant functions of homegarden plants in Baiku Yao villages

The number of edible plant species was high (above 50% of all plant species) in the homegarden of each village (Fig. 6), indicating that the homegardens of Baiku Yao are the primary source for providing food by cultivating crops, vegetables, and fruits.

Medicinal plants occupied the second position in the homegardens of different villages, i.e., Huaili (36 species, 30.25%), Yaozhai (40 species, 32.26%), Yaoshan (31 species, 22.63%), and Daonu (10 species, 21.3%). These findings indicate that Baiku Yao homegardens play an important role in community disease prevention and treatment, especially in Baiku Yao's ancient villages.

Approximately 15–20% of species represent forage plants in the homegardens of each village. The villagers have generally raised poultry and livestock since ancient times. Most Baiku Yao insists on using traditional wild vegetables or planting coarse grains in the feeding process instead of market feeds. The locals believe that the calories of commercial feed are too high, and the livestock is prone to internal fever and digestion problems [3]. Therefore, forage species are important components of homegardens in both traditional and relocated villages.

Ornamental plant diversity varies significantly among the studied villages. For example, Yaoshan Village has the highest number of ornamental plants (55 species; 40.15%), followed by Yaozhai (21 species, 16.94%), Duonu (15 species, 31.9%), and Huaili (14 species; 11.76%). The statistics of ornamental species indicate that Baiku Yao integrates various ornamental plants in constructing and designing homegardens; thus, they have a rich diversity of ornamental plants. Yaoshan Village has the most diverse ornamental plants because of local tourism development. In addition to the traditional ornamental plants the locals like, there are many landscape plants planned by the local government and tourism companies.

A comparison of homegarden plants among the four villages revealed that the distribution of plants utilized for veterinary medicine, religious rites, timber, fence, and dyes is much higher in the homegardens of ancient villages (Yaozhai and Huaili) compared to relocated villages (Yaoshan and Duonu). We found scarcely any sacred trees in Yaoshan Village, while Duonu Community homegardens had only one species of veterinary plant, one species of dye plant, and one species of the sacred tree. The comparison indicates that the traditional practice of homegarden plants in Baiku Yao ancient villages is higher and more comprehensive than in relocated villages. Because the relocated population may need to deal with a new natural resources composition or even face a different social environment, which leads to a changing livelihood or a different frequency of practice of traditional knowledge, relocation could be responsible for eroding some traditional knowledge. There are fewer types of homegarden plants in the Duonu Community than in other villages, meaning that establishing plant diversity in traditional homegardens requires a long-term process.

The impact of the tourism industry on studied villages

Our results show that ancient Baiku Yao villages (Huaili and Yaozhai) have more diversity of homegarden plants, which may suggest that compared to relocated villages, traditional culture related to homegarden plants in the ancient villages has been affected less by the modernization or the development of tourist industry. Duonu Community has much less diversity of homegarden plants. After relocation, these people moved to a different area with different environmental conditions and topography compared to their native location. They may not have been able to find and cultivate the same species as they used to grow in their native locations, and some of the traditional knowledge could be lost with time, which is somehow reflected by the low species richness in their homegardens. In contrast, homegardens in Yaoshan Village have a high diversity of species, similar to the two ancient villages. The field visit showed that Yaoshan villagers preserved not only relevant traditional knowledge but also incorporated new species into their homegardens even after relocation. A higher proportion of homegarden plants in Yaoshan Village comes from the market because, after relocation, they had more opportunities to travel to different places due to convenient transportation facilities. Therefore, they incorporated many new species into their homegardens. Due to local tourism development, they also incorporated many horticultural species in their homegardens compared to ancient villages.

Tourism activities were introduced in Yaoshan Village in 2009 to generate employment for local people under the national poverty reduction program and present the Baiku Yao ethnic culture to others. The tourism company improved road connectivity and developed infrastructure facilities to attract tourists, thus increasing local employment for the Baiku Yao people. During the investigation, we observed that although Yaoshan Village had become a tourist destination, it still maintained and preserved many traditional practices for homegarden plants. These practices might help maintain their traditional knowledge during tourism development. According to the introduction from the tourism company staff, the company believes that tourism should focus on the folk culture of Baiku Yao rather than paying attention to and interfering in the development of regional economy. This is reflected by the rich species diversity they plant in their homegardens to sustain their daily requirements. Tourism companies provide good infrastructure (such as roads, tap water, electricity, and house repair), but they keep their best not to interfere with the routine life of Baiku Yao, such as growing vegetables, sericulture, keeping chickens, and pigs. Therefore, the concept of traditional cultural protection preserves not only local traditional knowledge but also gives local tourism more cultural connotation and experience. Consequently, many people are attracted by the local tourism and ecotourism, which ultimately drives the development of the regional economy.

RFC value analysis of homegarden plants

The RFC values ranged from 0.01 to 0.93. The RFC value indicates the frequency of a specific species in the homegardens of Baiku Yao and reflects its importance in local daily life. Approximately 22 homegarden plants showed a high RFC value (> 0.5). Among them, Zea mays had the highest RFC value (0.93), followed by Morus alba (0.87), Capsicum annuum (0.87), Eriobotrya japonica (0.68), Ipomoea batatas (0.68), Solanum melongena (0.68), Glycine max (0.67), Phaseolus vulgaris (0.66), Agastache rugosa (0.65), Cannabis sativa (0.65), Brassica rapa var. oleifera (0.62), Cucurbita moschata (0.62), Zingiber officinale (0.6), Amaranthus tricolor (0.58), Allium sativum (0.58), Osmanthus fragrans (0.57), Fagopyrum dibotrys (0.57), Anredera cordifolia (0.56), Leucocasia gigantea (0.52), Broussonetia papyrifera (0.52) and Cinnamomum camphora (0.52).

Zea mays is planted by almost every household; therefore, this species has the highest RFC value. Baiku Yao lives in mountainous areas with minimum landholding, and they grow Zea mays as both a staple food and forage because of its high adaptability to such areas and high-yield production. As an important feed plant, Morus alba is mainly used to raise silkworms and can also be fed to pigs and cattle. Baiku Yao retains the traditional “farming and weaving culture” in the local area. Their traditional ethnic costumes are all woven from the silk. Therefore, as the only food source for sericulture, Morus alba also has a significant local position and value (Fig. 7). Eriobotrya japonica has the third-highest RFC value and is utilized for fruit and medicinal purposes (treating cough).

Fig. 7

Morus alba and the sericulture of Baiku Yao

Ipomoea batatas, Solanum melongena, Glycine max, Phaseolus vulgaris, Anredera cordifolia, Brassica rapa var. oleifera, Amaranthus tricolor, Cucurbita moschata, and Leucocasia gigantea also have relatively high RFC values. These species are the most common vegetables in the Baiku Yao area for daily needs.

During the interviews, local people said they liked to boil vegetables and meat instead of stir-frying; thus, they could avoid using cooking oil and preserve food nutrition as much as possible. In the past, because of transportation limitations and the economy, Baiku Yao seldom used seasonings such as soy sauce, monosodium glutamate, and salts. They still prefer cultivating various spice species such as Capsicum annuum, Agastache rugosa, Cannabis sativa, Zingiber officinale, and Allium sativum for more diverse flavors.

As a traditional farming ethnic group, Baiku Yao has a limited income source, and the meat supply mainly comes from self-raised poultry and livestock. Therefore, they grow various fodder species, such as Zea mays, Morus alba, Fagopyrum dibotrys, and Broussonetia papyrifera, in their homegardens.

Generally, the homegardens of different villages differ in species preference and utilization patterns. For example, the homegardens of Yaoshan Village and Duonu Community have a higher frequency of ornamental plants such as Ficus microcarpa, Bougainvillea glabra, and Zoysia japonica, but very few people grow these species in Huaili and Yao Villages. However, Huaili and Yaozhai villagers prefer to grow forage species in their homegardens, such as Broussonetia papyrifera and Fagopyrum dibotrys. These differences in species preferences among the studied villages indicate that they maintained some of the most commonly used species but also introduced various new species to their homegardens after relocation.

Ailanthus vilmoriniana, the totem tree of Baiku Yao, has an important cultural status in the local area. The resin of Ailanthus vilmoriniana is an anti-staining agent locally used in the dyeing and patterning of the traditional clothing of Baiku Yao (Fig. 8). Among the villages surveyed, Ailanthus vilmoriniana is only distributed in the homegardens of Huaili Village, so its RFC value is very low, yet all the local people of the surveyed villages are very familiar with relevant knowledge of Ailanthus vilmoriniana. In fact, market circulation and neighborhood exchanges make up for insufficient Ailanthus vilmoriniana resin resources in some villages. In addition, Baiku Yao has a very strong sense of ethnic and cultural identity and often wears traditional costumes, so to a certain extent, it also ensures the preservation of traditional knowledge related to Ailanthus vilmoriniana.

Fig. 8

Ailanthus vilmoriniana Dode and its resin application