Whence useful plants? A direct relationship between biodiversity and useful plants among the Dusun of Mt. Kinabalu JAN SALICK 1 , ALIM BIUN 2 , GARY MARTIN 3 , LUDI APIN 4 and REED BEAMAN 5 1 Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Porter Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 USA; 2 Sabah Parks, P.O.Box 10626, 88806 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; 3 People and Plants, B.P. 262, 40008 Marrakesh, Medina, Morocco; 4 Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu, Sabah Parks, P.O. Box 10626, 88806 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; 5 Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA Received 18 June 1998; accepted in revised form 6 October 1998 Abstract. Traditionally the Dusun indigenous people of Borneo consider Mt. Kinabalu the home of spirits and ancestors, and they are loath to climb the summit without good cause and plentiful propitiation. In apparent accordance with these beliefs, Projek Etnobotani Kinabalu has recorded few useful plants at high elevations on Mt. Kinabalu. We ask the question: is this an ecological relationship with fewer useful plants being collected at high elevations, or is it an ethnological product of belief with fewer plants collected where people fear to tread? With an indigenous Dusun plant expert (second author) well versed with all areas of Mt. Kinabalu, data on the number and kinds of useful plants were collected for dominant and indicator plant species (168 spp.) among all ecologically identi®ed vegetation types. Results indicate that there are more useful plant species at lower elevations ± but there are also more unused species. Once the data are corrected for change in the number of plant species with elevation (useful spp./total spp.), the proportion of useful species are not signi®cantly dierent over elevation. Thus, useful species are a function of overall biodi- versity (i.e., number of useful spp. are correlated with number of plant species, a secondary eco- logical factor) and not a direct ecological correlate with elevation. The number or kinds of uses also correlates with total number of plant species. In support of direct ecological causation, there is evidence that edaphic conditions (i.e., ultrama®c and other poor soils) are associated with reduced proportions of useful species. Ultimately, both ethnological and ecological factors contribute to patterns of people's use of plants with many implications for conservation and biodiversity. Key words: biodiversity, conservation, ethnobotany, useful plants Introduction Mt. Kinabalu is where the spirits dwell and ancestors rest for the neighbouring indigenous peoples of Borneo, including the Dusun who inhabit the base of this impressive massif (Regis 1996). At 4101 m it is highest mountain between the Himalayas and the peaks of New Guinea, arising abruptly from the South China Sea only 40 km away (Wong and Phillips 1996). One of the richest Biodiversity and Conservation 8: 797±818, 1999. Ó 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.