Profound socioeconomic changes affected mountains of Central Italy during the last century and many traditional agro-pastoral activities were abandoned. A few ethnobotanical studies in this area have specifically documented local wild plants used decades ago, but without analyzing in-depth how and why Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) has eroded or changed over time. In this study, we 1) document ethnobotanical uses of four high-altitude remote villages of Central Italy, 2) discuss how these uses have changed over time, comparing them with fieldwork that was conducted 40 years earlier; and 3) assess how plant uses have changed across space, particularly whether the remoteness of villages or the occurrence of Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) have affected TEK linked to wild plants. Sixty semi-structured interviews revealed the use of 83 taxa belonging to 35 families. We did not find any relationship between SNS and the richness of TEK, as these SNS were not inhabited by monastic communities that could have shared their scholarly knowledge. There was not a relationship between remoteness and richness of TEK. The common statement emerging from the field, “We became rich and lost everything”, revealed how socio-economic changes resulted in the rapid abandonment of traditional practices, while the ubiquity of pharmacies may have contributed to the erosion of ethnomedicinal knowledge.

上个世纪深刻的社会经济变化影响了意大利中部的山区，许多传统的农牧活动被放弃了。该领域的一些民族植物学研究专门记录了数十年前使用的当地野生植物，但没有深入分析传统生态知识（TEK）如何以及为什么随着时间的流逝而侵蚀或改变。在这项研究中，我们1）记录了意大利中部四个高海拔偏远村庄的民族植物学使用，2）讨论了这些使用随时间的变化，并将其与40年前进行的实地调查进行了比较；和3）评估植物用途在整个空间的变化，特别是村庄的偏远地区或神圣自然遗址（SNS）的出现是否影响了与野生植物相关的TEK。60次半结构化访谈显示，使用了35个家庭的83个分类单元。我们没有发现SNS与TEK的丰富度之间有任何关系，因为这些SNS并不是可以分享其学术知识的修道院社区居住的。TEK的偏远性与丰富性之间没有关系。该领域出现的共同声明是：“我们变得富裕而失去了一切”，它揭示了社会经济变化如何导致传统做法的迅速放弃，而无处不在的药房可能助长了民族医学知识的侵蚀。TEK的偏远性与丰富性之间没有关系。该领域出现的共同声明是：“我们变得富裕而失去了一切”，它揭示了社会经济变化如何导致传统做法的迅速放弃，而无处不在的药房可能助长了民族医学知识的侵蚀。TEK的偏远性与丰富性之间没有关系。该领域出现的共同声明是：“我们变得富裕而失去了一切”，它揭示了社会经济变化如何导致传统做法的迅速放弃，而无处不在的药房可能助长了民族医学知识的侵蚀。