Tinde van Andel

Tinde van Andel

As an ethnobotanist, I study traditional plant use. Together with several PhD students, postdocs and MSc students, I am involved in a number of research projects: traditional rice varieties grown in the Guianas, historical herbaria and botanical drawings in the Leiden treasure rooms, plant use by hunter-gatherers in Cameroon, migrations of plants and people, medicinal and ritual plant use.

Keywords

Ethnobotany, historic collections, medicinal plants, ritual plants, Suriname, taro, traditional rice, West and Central Africa, wild food plants

Prof. Dr. Tinde van Andel

Senior researcher Ethnobotany
Professor Ethnobotany (Wageningen University)
Professor History of Botany and Gardens (Leiden University)
Tropical Botany

tinde.vanandel@naturalis.nl
+31 (0)71 751 9267 


 

Research
interest

Listening to the story behind a useful plant helps me to discover people’s unwritten history. Documenting traditional knowledge on wild food and local crop landraces helps us to understand how people have been survived on hunter-gathering and self-sufficient agriculture in the past centuries.

Within the Clusius chair at Leiden University, I am involved in the study of historic herbaria and botanical drawings, made by early scientists and explorers in the 16th, 17th and 18th century. These collections often include medicinal and otherwise useful plants from tropical countries. Examples are botanical drawings of medicinal plants, documented by VOC ship doctors in Ceylon, the book herbaria of the German explorer Leonhard Rauwolf, The Historia Naturalis Brasiliensis (1648) for Dutch Brazil, and several other historic herbaria made by anonymous botanists. 

In cooperation with the Biosystematics group at Wageningen University and several international partners, I do research on traditional rice cultivars grown by Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana. Genetic research on traditional rice cultivars can show the migration routes of people's and plants, and exchange of cultivars among different ethnic groups. Ethnobotanical research teaches us the motivations and practices of Maroons to keep their rice diversity. Historical and archival research places the Maroon oral history and genetic outcomes in a broader perspective.

Documenting traditional rice varieties in the field, Lawa River, Suriname.

Current
topics

  • Traditional rice landraces grown by Aucan and Saramaccan Maroons in Suriname and French Guiana (with Eric Schranz, Marieke van de Loosdrecht, Nicholaas Pinas, Harro Maat, Robin van Velzen).
  • Migration of taro (Colocasia esculenta) from Africa to the New World and back t Europe(with Ilaria Grimaldi and Qiong Fang)
  • Historic herbaria in the treasure room of Naturalis (with Anastasia Stefanaki and Aleid Offerhaus):
    • The En Tibi herbarium (1558)
    • Herbaria of Leonhard Rauwolf (1535-1596)
    • Herbaria Simone D'Oignies (ca. 1730)
    • Zierikzee herbarium (ca. 1720)
  • Ethnobotany of the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (with Mariana de Campos Francozo and Mireia Alcantara Rodriguez)
  • Wild edible plants eaten by Baka people in southeast Cameroon (with Sandrine Gallois and Amanda Henry)
  • Traditional herbal medicine (with Mei Wang and Bob Jia).
  • Amazonian body ornaments made from seeds (with Caroline Fernandes Caromano)
  • Plants associated with witchcraft in Western Europe in past and present (with Isabela Pombo Geertsma)

Key
publications

PhD
supervision

Several PhD students are active in the field of Ethnobotany under my supervision

  • Nicholaas Pinas (Naturalis, Wageningen University) Maroon rice cultivation in Suriname and French Guiana
  • Isabela Pombo Geertsma (Utrecht University). Witchcraft plants in the past and present
  • Lisa Johnson (Utrecht University) Growing tropical fruits in 18th century Leiden.
  • Aleid Offerhaus (Naturalis, Leiden University) 18th century herbaria in the Leiden treasure rooms
  • Qiong (June) Fang (Wageningen University) Taro diversity and acridity
  • Susanne Masters (Leiden University) Harvest of orchids for salep production
Research on Ver-O-Peso market, Belem. Picture: C.A. van der Hoeven

Teaching
activities

In the
media

All media coverage and interviews are posted on my website.

 

Fieldwork with the Baka in southeast Cameroon. Picture: Thomas Heger

Fieldwork among Baka people in southeast Cameroon. Picture Thomas Heger

Publications