BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

vides extensive nutritional composition data, as well as cross-references to
wild food use by societies throughout southern Africa. Leary (1969) noted
that 13% of Pedi adults utilized wild edible green leaves (merogo) regularly,
but that a serious decline in such use was seen among Pedi children who con­
sidered such food items "primitive".
The Tlhaping, a Tswana society of northwestern South Africa, was studied
by Ferreira (1927) who identified six important wild plants regularly serving
as food; root of Boscia albitrunca, and the fruits from Ehretia hottentotica,
Grewia cana, Rhus incana, Rhus tridactyla, and Zizyphus mucronata.
The dietary/nutritional problems faced by traditional South African peoples
upon immigration to congested urban areas has been a long concern. Hellmann
(1936; 1939) clearly identified how urban settings alter protective, traditional
food patterns by reducing dietary variability and access to fresh domesticated
and wild foods. This theme, continued by Walker (1962), identifies loss of food
diversity as a central element of poor nutrition in peri-urban, sub-standard
housing localities without access to horticultural or wild plant products.
Keyter (n.d.) has summarized how South African urban Blacks should be fed to
maintain quality nutrition.
Turning to botanical studies on edible wild plants, several have regional
importance beginning with the publication by Juritz (1914) on indigeneous foods.
Verdoorn (1937; 1938) focused on the edible wild fruits of the Transvaal, notplant
ing that 23 families out of 146 found in this northern state have edible products
that are widely utilized. Stapleton (1937), in his work on common Transvaal
trees, provides data on edible species, while Hennessey and Lewis (1971) give
similar information for edible wild plants of Natal.
56.