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ethnobotanyR

Please remember to cite the ethnobotanyR package if you use it in your publications. Use citation("ethnobotanyR") to get a citation for the latest version.

To cite package 'ethnobotanyR' in publications use:

  Whitney C (2026). _ethnobotanyR: Ethnobotanical Analysis,
  Decision-Framing, and TEK Modeling_. R package version 0.2.0,
  <https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ethnobotanyR>.

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is

  @Manual{,
    title = {ethnobotanyR: Ethnobotanical Analysis, Decision-Framing, and TEK Modeling},
    author = {Cory Whitney},
    year = {2026},
    note = {R package version 0.2.0},
    url = {https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ethnobotanyR},
  }

The goal of ethnobotanyR is to provide an easy-to-use platform for ethnobotanists to work with quantitative ethnobotany assessments. It closely follows Tardio and Pardo-de-Santayana (2008) and Whitney et al. (2018).

Users of ethnobotanyR may find it useful to read the background papers and books on ethnobotany theory. In particular Albuquerque et al. (2019) offer helpful guidance to understanding theoretical approaches in ethnobotany and developing meaningful research questions.

Quick Links
Installing ethnobotanyR
ethnobotanyR CRAN Version
Quantitative ethnobotany analysis with ethnobotanyR
Modeling with ethnobotanyR
ethnobotanyR Wiki

Installation

Install the released version of ethnobotanyR from CRAN with install.packages("ethnobotanyR").

Install the working version of ethnobotanyR from GitHub with devtools::install_github("CWWhitney/ethnobotanyR").

References

Albuquerque, Ulysses Paulino, Patricia Muniz de Medeiros, Washington Soares Ferreira Junior, Taline Cristina da Silva, Rafael Ricardo Vasconcelos da Silva, and Thiago Goncalves-Souza. 2019. Social-Ecological Theory of Maximization: Basic Concepts and Two Initial Models. Biological Theory. doi.org/10.1007/s13752-019-00316-8.

Tardio, J., and M. Pardo-de-Santayana, 2008. Cultural Importance Indices: A Comparative Analysis Based on the Useful Wild Plants of Southern Cantabria (Northern Spain) 1. Economic Botany, 62(1), 24-39. doi.org/10.1007/s12231-007-9004-5.

Whitney, C. W., Bahati, J., and Gebauer, J. (2018), Ethnobotany and agrobiodiversity; valuation of plants in the homegardens of southwestern Uganda. Ethnobiology Letters, 9(2), 90-100. doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.503.

Whitney C (2022). ethnobotanyR: Calculate Quantitative Ethnobotany Indices. R package version 0.1.9, https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ethnobotanyR.

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Version

Install

install.packages('ethnobotanyR')

Monthly Downloads

278

Version

0.2.0

License

GPL

Maintainer

Cory Whitney

Last Published

February 25th, 2026

Functions in ethnobotanyR (0.2.0)

simple_UVs

Use Value (UV) index per species
ethnobotanydata

Ethnobotany data set.
ethnoChord

Chord diagram of ethnobotany uses and species
ethno_bayes_consensus

Gives a measure of the confidence we can have in the answers in the ethnobotany data.
UVs

Use Value (UV) index per species
RIs

Relative Importance index (RI)
CIs

Cultural Importance index (CI)
FCs

Frequency of Citation (FC)
URs

Use Report (UR)
ethno_alluvial

Alluvial plot of ethnobotany uses and species
ethno_boot

Bootstrap analyses of ethnobotany indices
Radial_plot

Radial bar plot of ethnobotany indices
CVe

Cultural Value of ethnospecies (CVe)
RFCs

Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC)
NUs

Number of Uses (NU)
URsum

Sum of all Use Reports (UR) for all species
FLs

Fidelity Level (FL)