Presentation

source: Pablo Orduna, Victoria Portús, Pablo Álvarez

Basque mythology locates the Olympus of its gods on Mount Auñamendi (Anie), at the eastern end of the Pyrenees. Specifically, it is there where Jaungorri lived, who controlled not only the storms but also a multitude of healing plants and even the gift of immortality. Today, this ethnobotanical activity opens the door to access the floral knowledge of the people who settled near this mountain range. We must bear in mind that, according to José Miguel de Barandiarán, "the humanisation of the Pyrenees is an ancient fact". Therefore, in a changing world, the activity offers student the opportunity to understand and analyse part of its cultural and natural heritage through a direct approach to the environment, to its landscape. Serafín Barrón (1915), a doctor in the town of Roncal, stated that: "very little is known about the relations between the plant and animal kingdoms, but the facts of nature speak so clearly and so loudly that if we are not blind we cannot help but understand their existence".