Folk names of medicinal plant species in the Pirot District (Serbia)

Etnobotanika 6 (2026) (str. 101-132)

AUTOR(I) / AUTHOR(S): Vesna P. Stankov Jovanović Marija S. Marković

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.46793/EtnBot26.101SJ

SAŽETAK / ABSTRACT:

Folk names of plant species vary across different parts of the same country. Folk understandings of plant naming are underpinned by traditional identification with plants, resulting in a rich and diverse plant terminology.  In Serbia, there are several folk names for a single plant species, conversely completely different and unrelated plants may sometimes share the same folk name, partly due to errors in recognition. Folk names reflect people’s cognitive experience of plants, most often according to the use, color or morphology of the plant parts, the place where the plant grows or the specifics of the plant.

This paper presents the folk names of medicinal plants recorded in four municipalities of the Pirot District, located in southeastern Serbia, along the border with Bulgaria. For medicinal purposes, 182 plant taxa belonging to 68 families are used, Traditional knowledge of the medicinal plants in the Pirot District indicates that these are the same plant species well known throughout Serbia for their medicinal properties, despite differences in their local folk names across the four municipalities. Some of the folk names, such as „drenčak“ for plant species Hypericum perforatum, mentioned by respondents in Babušnica and Dimitrovgrad municipalities,point to the presence of specific and unique terminology in this border area.

KLJUČNE REČI / KEYWORDS:

folk names, phytolinguistics, Pirot District

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT / PROJEKAT:

This research is part of the project „Ethnopharmacological Study of the Region of Southeastern Serbia“, O-02-17, supported by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. It was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and
Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (Contracts No. 451-03-34/2026-03/200124, and No. 45103-33/2026-03/200027).

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