Gustav Vilbaste kui etnobotaanilise ainese koguja, uurija ja publitseerija
Gustav Vilbaste as a collector, researcher, and publisher of ethnobiological data

Summary/Abstract: Gustav Vilbaste as a collector, researcher, and publisher of ethnobiological data Gustav Vilbaste (1885–1967, until 1935 Vilberg), the first Estonian ethnobiologist and nature conservationist, made a remarkable contribution to the development of Estonian botanical language. However, until now little attention has been paid to his work related to the establishment of ethnobotany as a science in Estonia. He lived at a time when Estonian scientific plant names were established on the basis of vernacular names, and many traditional names were still used by people. He helped the committee on plant names by collecting vernacular names and continued this work even later. In fact, he was the only Estonian expert in this area in Estonia; judging by the value of his collections, it was an outstanding achievement also from a global perspective. Before his study of natural sciences at the University of Tartu he intensively collected general folklore, mostly folk songs, with some emphasis on ethnobotanical data. Starting from the 1920s, he collected ethnobotanical data with the help of a network of correspondents all over Estonia, including schoolchildren. After his retirement in the 1950s he resumed collecting general folklore, but also conducted several expeditions outside Estonia in order to collect data on plant names and the use of plants among the kindred peoples. His manuscript collection on vernacular plant names and the use of plants amounts to over 8,000 pages. It reflects almost 40 years of work by almost 1,500 correspondents, and it contains more data on folk plant names and the use of plants than any other folklore collection at the Estonia Folklore Archives.

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