Evolutionary Clustering in Neotropical Biocultural Heritage: the Huastec Mayan Useful Plants

Biodiversity in the Neotropics includes an extraordinary diversity of plant variation produced by evolution that is useful for human well-being. Traditional knowledge of the Tenek, a Huastec Mayan culture, represents an important biocultural heritage for this realm. Here, we used the information about their useful plants to explore evolutionary biocultural patterns occurring in Neotropics. Our goal was to analyse the phylogenetic distribution of usage guilds, their degree of evolutionary clustering, significant associations, and phylogenetic overlap between guilds to test the hypothesis that Tenek selection of plants is not random but phylogenetically clustered. We found significant phylogenetic clustering in all usage guilds except ceremonial and medicine. Tenek people use a variety of relatively deep plant lineages providing specific services that biocultural processes have promoted in the ecosystems they inhabit. The lineages Asterales, Caryophyllales, Fabales, Lamiales, Malpighiales, and Malvales in eudicots and Poales and Asparagales in monocots concentrated most of the Huastec Mayan useful plants. Multi-functional hot nodes, including Asterales, Fabales, Lamiales, Malvales, Poaceae Sapindales, and Solanales, with phylogenetic overlap between usage guilds, should be major priority targets in conservation planning.