Abstract
The grass pea, Lathyrus sativus, has a long record as a food resource in temperate regions of the Old World, despite having toxic seeds and being potentially harmful to both humans and livestock. The seeds are regular components of plant assemblages recovered from archaeological sites in south-west Asia and southern Europe from the seventh millennium BC onwards. The crop has a number of farming advantages, being environmentally tolerant and productive of a palatable, nutritious and easily stored grain, and it is a valued famine food. This paper examines the traditional cultivation and detoxification strategies employed for this important grain crop in the highlands of Ethiopia, and discusses possible lines of evidence that may indicate the use of Lathyrus sativus in the distant past.
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Butler, A., Tesfay, Z., D’Andrea, C., Lyons, D. (1999). The Ethnobotany of Lathyrus Sativus L. in the Highlands of Ethiopia. In: van der Veen, M. (eds) The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6730-8_11
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