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Nuaulu Use and Management of Culturally Salient Polymorphisms in Codiaeum variegatum: Explaining the Biocultural Dimensions of Leaf Variegation in a Southeast Asian Ornamental

Ellen, Roy (2021) Nuaulu Use and Management of Culturally Salient Polymorphisms in Codiaeum variegatum: Explaining the Biocultural Dimensions of Leaf Variegation in a Southeast Asian Ornamental. Journal of Ethnobiology, 41 (2). pp. 229-246. ISSN 0278-0771. E-ISSN 2162-4496. (doi:10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.229) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:89060)

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Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.229

Abstract

Codiaeum variegatum has become a well-known ornamental plant in Europe and North America and has long been culturally significant in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, for example as a boundary plant. This paper asks, firstly, how variations in foliage are classified, managed, and valued in one population (Nuaulu on the island of Seram, eastern Indonesia), and how this relates to the range of uses to which these variations are put. Secondly, the paper suggests that this particular case helps shed light on the importance of leaf variegation as an organoleptic quality in the context of biocultural evolution. It is noted that the features that evolved in its area of endemism are those making it attractive as an ornamental globally. While color variations in foliage combining genotypic cultivar differences, clonal differences, and age-dependent differences produce phenotypic instability and are a problem for ornamental plant producers in a commercial context, they are not a problem for Nuaulu.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.229
Uncontrolled keywords: Codiaeum variegatum, leaf variegation, ornamentation in ritual, Nuaulu, Indonesia, phenotypic instability and naming
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Roy Ellen
Date Deposited: 07 Jul 2021 05:31 UTC
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2023 14:43 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/89060 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ellen, Roy.

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