An Ethnobotanical Survey of Wild Edible Plants Commercialized in Kefira Market, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

Food insecurity and malnutrition affect much of the world’s population. Wild edible plants are known to make important contributions to the livelihoods of local communities of sub-Saharan Africa countries including Ethiopia. The populations in Ethiopia have a rich knowledge of consumption of wild edible plants and wild edible plants are still an integral part of the society in the country. An Ethnobotanical Survey of Wild Edible Plants Commercialized in Kefira Market, Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia was conducted with the aim of documenting the wild edible plants used by the community. Ethnobotanical data were collected from 29 informants using semi-structured interviews. A total of 22 wild edible plants belonging to 17 families were documented. Most of the wild edible plants were trees (81.82%), Fruits were the dominant edible parts (68%) followed by seed (18%) consumed by the people. The present paper provides basic information for better conservation, possibly for further exploitation of WEPs, and to preserve the traditional knowledge associated with WEPs for the future generation.