Guinea is home to at least 20 ethnolinguistic groups, including: Kpélé, Konon, Toma, Kissi in Guinée Forestière; Pular in Moyenne Guinée; Malinké, Konianké in Haute Guinée; and Soussou in Guinée Maritime. The Fulani, Malinké, and Soussou are the most populous ethnic groups in the country, with the highest ethnolinguistic diversity in the Guinée Forestière region (Gibbs, 2024). Guinée Maritime, also known as Basse Guinée, is home to Guinea’s capital, Conakry, where almost all of Guinea’s ethnic groups can be found, as well as immigrants from other countries. The indigenous people of Guinée Maritime are dominated by the Soussou, and also present are the Baga, Nalou, Mikhifôré, Balanté, Landouma and Diakanke, Traditionally, the main activities of the Soussou people consist of cultivating food crops, such as rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.), bananas (Musa acuminata Colla) and pineapples (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr), small-scale fishing, salt and palm oil production, and trading (Diakhaby, 2017; Gibbs, 2024). This region also has the highest rainfall of the country, with an annual rainfall of 2–4 m (Diawara, 2001). Rainforest has been almost entirely cleared for agriculture, but large tracts of mangrove remain.

Moyenne-Guinée is home mainly to the Peuls (or Peuhl) and Dialonkés. The Peuls are sedentary farmers and herdsmen, originally nomads, inhabiting the Fouta Djalon highlands, with their major population centers concentrated at high altitudes (>1000 m in elevation) where the landscape has been highly transformed and agriculture is dominant e.g. fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf), African rice (Oryza glaberrima), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), and more recently potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.). The Peuls have also specialized as traders, dominating most of the public markets and major business centers in Conakry and the regional capitals (Diakhaby, 2017; Gibbs, 2024).

In Haute Guinée, the prevalent ethnic group are the Malinké, subsistence farmers who rely mainly on yams (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.), rice (Oryza sativa), millet (Sorghum bicolor) and maize (Zea mays L.), and inhabit the lowest rainfall region of Guinea. This area is characterized by vast tracts of lowland woodland or savannah, which are part of the Sahel, a semi-arid vegetation belt that extends from Senegal to Sudan below the Sahara and acts as a transition between the Sahara Desert and more humid savannas in the South.

Guinée Forestière, located in the southeastern part of the country, is inhabited by the Guerzés, Kissi, Mano, Konon, Koniaké and Toma. Their main activities are agriculture, such as rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.), cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott), bananas (Musa × paradisiaca L.), groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L.), and palm oil (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) production, dyeing and trade. This region, which benefits from a longer rainy season than the rest of the country, also has the largest forest cover of all four Guinean regions. The forest is mainly evergreen, low altitude and highly species diverse. Guinée Forestière also includes mountains, part of the Loma-Man highlands, which extend into Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, and separate from the Fouta Djalon. Major natural areas include the Mont Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, the Ziama Massif, the Diécké, Mont Béro and Pic de Fon forests, which are rich in biodiversity and endemism.

Our study focused on the native plant species harvested from the wild, excluding strictly cultivated species, but including species that are naturalized. Information on Guinea’s native plant species and their uses was collected from a literature survey and detailed interviews with local communities (Supplementary Methods 1).

Considering both the interview and literature information, summarized in Supplementary Data 1, the data was analyzed to query the following: 1) distribution of species across botanical families and geographical regions, at country and regional level; 2) distribution of species across categories of use in Guinea; 3) most commonly used plant parts; 5) identification of most common and most restricted species; 6) number of species per threat category, using IUCN Red List Assessments. Graphics and tables were generated in Microsoft Excel.

Based on the literature survey and interviews, a total of 399 wild useful plant species were identified, belonging to 84 plant families (Supplementary Table 3). The most frequently cited categories of use are medicine, material and food, while the least recorded plant use categories were poisons and bee plants (Figure 2). The most cited during the interviews were: Nauclea latifolia Sm., Uapaca togoensis Pax, Nauclea pobeguinii (Pobég.) Merr, Holarrhena floribunda (G.Don) T.Durand & Schinz, Newbouldia laevis (P.Beauv.) Seem. ex Bureau, Combretum micranthum G.Don, Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A.Rich. and Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertn. These species are directly used by the communities, and many of them also provide commercially traded products such as Nauclea pobeguinii of which the medicinal bark is traded in all regions of Guinea, and Vitellaria paradoxa as the source of shea butter.

A total of 329 species (82%) are used by the Guinean communities as medicine to treat various illnesses. The most commonly cited plant species for medicine are Stereospermum acuminatissimum K.Schum. (Bignoniaceae), Alchornea cordifolia (Schumach. & Thonn.) Müll.Arg. and Ricinodendron heudelotii (Baill.) Heckel (both Euphorbiaceae), Xylopia aethiopica (Annonaceae), Combretum micranthum (Combretaceae), Vitellaria paradoxa (Sapotaceae), Elaeis guineensis and Raphia hookeri G.Mann & H.Wendl. (both Arecaceae). The recipes indicated by the community are used to treat 32 illnesses and symptoms, the most cited being: dysentery, diarrhea, headaches, rheumatism, malaria, stomach aches, haemorrhoids, jaundice, urinary tract infection, and intestinal parasites (Supplementary Figure 2B). Certain conditions such as hypertension, gastric problems, leprosy, oedema, respiratory diseases, asthma, painful periods, diabetes and inflammation of the testicles were less represented in the interviews. Four methods of preparation were documented for medicinal plants. Of these, decoction (65%) and infusion (22%) were the most cited, while maceration (8%) and carbonization (5%) were the least used (Supplementary Figure 2C).

In Guinea, 32% of the wild useful plants documented are used as materials (based on interview data). The most popular species used for construction materials include species in the palm genus Raphia P.Beauv. (Raphia hookeri, Raphia palma-pinus (Gaertn.) Hutch., Raphia sudanica A.Chev.), as well as mahogany species in the genus Khaya A.Juss. in Meliaceae (Khaya anthotheca (Welw.) C.DC., Khaya grandifoliola C.DC., Khaya ivorensis A.Chev., and Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A.Juss.; Gaoue and Ticktin, 2009; Ismail et al., 2019; Ali Mbodou et al., 2024). The various uses as materials are grouped into two categories of use: construction and packaging (Supplementary Figure 2A). During the interviews, some species, such as Afzelia africana Sm. ex Pers., Alstonia boonei De Wild., Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn., Entandrophragma angolense (Welw.) C.DC., Khaya anthotheca, Milicia regia (A.Chev.) C.C.Berg, Prosopis africana (Guill. & Perr.) Taub., Pterocarpus erinaceus Poir. Terminalia ivorensis A.Chev, and Ricinodendron heudelotii were cited for building houses and roads. Others, such as Elaeis guineensis, Mitragyna stipulosa (DC.) Kuntze, Piper umbellatum L., Raphia hookeri and Thaumatococcus daniellii (Benn.) Benth. ex Eichler, were cited for packaging.

A total of 82 (20%) of the wild useful plant species in Guinea were found to be used as food, based on interviews. The most popular species used for food are, Beilschmiedia mannii (Meisn.) Benth. & Hook.f. ex, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Raphia hookeri, Piper guineense Schumach. & Thonn., Combretum micranthum, Anisophyllea laurina R.Br. ex Sabine, Xylopia aethiopica, Saba senegalensis (A.DC.) Pichon, Neocarya macrophylla, Parinari excelsa Sabine, Vitellaria paradoxa, Dioscorea bulbifera L., Elaeis guineensis, Pterocarpus santalinoides L’Hér. ex DC. and Parkia biglobosa (Jacq.) Benth. (Supplementary Figure 3). The consumption of leaves, followed by fresh fruits, and tubers, was the most common.

The number of uses from interviews and literature sources were compared (Figure 2A), and it was found that there are far more uses reported in the literature than what we could document through the interviews. The greater number of records from literature sources possibly reflects the earlier date of many of these publications and, therefore, that some uses may have disappeared over the last century, and secondly that some of these literature sources aggregate information from wider West Africa (e.g., Burkill, 1985).

A total of 13 plant parts, including combinations of plant parts, were identified from the interviews as useful. The most commonly used parts are the leaves (30% of all uses), followed by stems (22%), bark (13%), fruits (11%) and roots (10%). Exudates, entire plant, seed, unspecified part and combinations of other organs all scored below 5% use (Figure 2). Figure 2B provides the plants parts used by category of use.

Of the 399 socio-economically important plant species identified, 312 have published IUCN Red List assessments available (Figure 3). Of these, 28 species are threatened with extinction, of which four are Endangered (EN) and 24 species are Vulnerable (VU). Of the remaining plant species, six are Near Threatened (NT), 277 are of Least Concern (LC), and one species is data deficient (DD). Of all categories of use, medicinal plants are the ones with the highest proportion of threatened species according to the interview data (Figure 3).

In total, 37 useful plant species were recorded from all four geographical regions (Table 2, Supplementary Table 2). Somes of these commonly known useful species have multiple categories of use such as Beilschmiedia mannii, Piper guineense or Xylopia aethiopica which are used as medicine, food and material. During the interviews, we observed that the number of wild useful plants is highest in Guinée Forestière (260), followed by Guinée Maritime (181), Moyenne Guinée (163) and Haute Guinée (147) (Figure 4A). Fabaceae was the most represented plant family in interviews across all regions (Figure 4B), its species being mostly used as medicine, materials and food. While the most represented plant family was the same in all regions, the second most important family varied (Figure 4B). In Guinée Maritime and Moyenne-Guinée, it was the Apocynaceae, with useful species such as Landolphia dulcis (Sabine ex G.Don) Pichon and Saba senegalensis (A.DC.) Pichon; in Haute-Guinée, it was the Euphorbiaceae, with e.g. Bridelia grandis Pierre ex Hutch. subsp. grandis and Uapaca guineensis Müll.Arg, and in Guinée Forestière, it was the Rubiaceae, with e.g. Craterispermum laurinum (Poir.) Benth. and Mitragyna stipulosa. It is also worth noting that no general distinction between men and women was found in the traditional knowledge of plant species and their uses.

This study recorded 399 wild useful plant species in Guinea, from 85 plant families, representing c. 10% of the total flora of Guinea. Analysis of the results shows that plant species are important for their traditional uses in local communities across the four geographical regions of the country. This importance is supported by the high number of species used and by the often large number of uses for each species. The plant uses varied from region to region, depending on the species present in the locality and the community’s traditional knowledge, reflecting the botanical and cultural diversity of each region.

The number of wild useful plants recorded here is higher than a previous study by Carrière (2000), which recorded 371 species used in Guinea including cultivated species. These results are comparable to others recorded in Africa, for example in Namaqualand (South Africa) where 383 vascular plant species with socio-economic uses were documented out of a total of 2,902 wild species (c. 13%; Nortje and Van Wyk, 2019), but lower than those recorded in Uganda where 1,037 species with known human uses were identified out of c. 4,816 vascular plant species native to Uganda (c. 21%; O’Sullivan et al., 2025).

The traditional use of medicinal plants forms the basis of curative medicine for many low-income populations, especially in rural communities (Lawin et al., 2016). Despite the common use of medicinal plants, few studies are available focused on West Africa (Ayensu, 1978; Burkill, 1985; Tabuti et al., 2003; Jusu and Sanchez, 2013; Sarr et al., 2013; Lebbie et al., 2017; Manzo et al., 2017; Badjaré et al., 2018; Almeida, 2018). Our study documented 329 medicinal plant species in Guinea (from interviews), of which 211 in the Guinée Forestière region alone. This is lower than a previous study (Carrière, 2000) which recorded 371 medicinal species for Guinea, although they included cultivated species.

In Guinea, 129 native plant species (32%) are documented as used for material. The use of native plant species for material needs in Guinea may be explained by the high rural population and low GDP of the country; people use what is at hand for their construction needs. Wood is one of the most popular products in this category. It is in strong demand for several uses including crafts, construction of houses, roads, and furniture. Fabaceae is the most represented family, however, there are also several plant families with non-woody material uses. For example, nine species of palm have parts that are used for making mats, baskets, thatch and, in the case of rattan, furniture.

In many African countries, charcoal is the fuel of the urban poor and provides employment in rural and urban areas (Zulu and Richardson, 2013). Wood is also in high demand as a source of fuel, it is a major source of energy for most households, especially for cooking (Iheke and Osuji, 2015). An estimated 2.5 to 3.0 billion people rely on wood for fuel globally; in Africa, it is projected that wood meets 58% of all energy needs (Johnson and Bryden, 2012). In Guinea, fuel has the fourth highest number of species uses (11%). Wood fuel is the main source of energy for cooking in Africa, where more than 90% of household cooking uses wood or charcoal (Seidel, 2008), both of which are a big threat to the remaining forests of Guinea (Couch et al., 2023b). In addition, in Guinée Forestière between 2000 and 2018, 25% of the remaining forest cover was lost (Fitzgerald et al., 2021). A key driver of this deforestation is the increased demand for wood and charcoal fuel (Diawara, 2001).

Of the socio-economically important plant species of Guinea, 82 (20%) are reported as used for food. Non-timber forest products, such as fruits, are largely collected and traded by women and children (Molmou et al., 2022) and may constitute an important source income for communities as documented during the interviews of this study. In Guinée Forestière alone, 55 species of wild food plants were documented, similar to what was reported in Guinée Maritime (46 species). The difference between the regions in Guinea could be due to higher population levels and reduced forest cover in Guinée Maritime, in addition to the difference in size of the four geographical regions.

This survey of how plants are used by people in Guinea collected information relating to vernacular names, uses and different parts of plants (Supplementary Table S3). Nearly a third of the parts used were leaves (30%). This is similar to a study from Côte d’Ivoire on food plants, where c. 32% of all useful plant species parts were leaves (Dan Guimbo et al., 2013). The predominance of leaves, roots and bark of medicinal plants are indicated by several authors (Betti, 2002; Monteiro and Azevedo, 2010; Dibong et al., 2011). Unlike fruits, of which the availability is influenced by the phenological seasons, leaves are more likely to be stored for a long time; we found 41% of fruits are used as food and c. 63% of leaves. This is higher than what is found in neighboring country Mali, where only c. 14% of fruits are used as food (Diarra et al., 2016). This study focused on socio-economically important plants, and the stems occupy the second rank of the most used categories at 22%. This supports that in Guinea, as in many other developing countries, wood is a main source of energy (Nuberg, 2015), and is also used for the construction of buildings, roads, and furniture. Of the three forms of medicinal preparations identified, the decoction and maceration forms are most often administered as a drink. The use of decoctions can be justified by the fact that they have the advantage of facilitating extraction and releasing volatile toxic substances (Traoré et al., 2011).

The communities surveyed were aware of the threat to their forest resources (Hassen et al., 2023). This was evidenced from the interviews, from which we understand that in the past, many useful plant species were abundant and collected near villages, but today most of them have become rare and people have to travel further to find certain species. The threats cited by the communities are urbanization, slash-and-burn agriculture, exploitation of forest resources, and inappropriate collection methods.

Twenty-eight plants on our list are threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List (2023). This number includes some of the most used useful plant species across Guinea, such as the kola tree (Garcinia kola Heckel, VU), African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis, VU), African teak (Milicia excelsa, NT), and Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa, VU). In their respective Red List assessments, a common threat was described as tendency for overexploitation by local and non-local people and clearing forest land for agriculture. In general, many of the threats are anthropogenic (Yaovi et al., 2021; Taonda et al., 2024). For example, the method of collection of the various plant parts can be destructive including cutting a tree to access the fruit in the case of Landolphia macrantha (K.Schum.) Pichon, Piper guineense and Xylopia aethiopica, debarking a tree for medicinal uses like in the case of Nauclea latifolia, Nauclea pobeguinii and Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (Lam.) Zepern. & Timler, or by cutting down trees to use as lumber e.g. Pterocarpus erinaceus, Cryptosepalum tetraphyllum (Hook.f.) Benth., Khaya anthotheca and Milicia regia.

While many of the useful species in our study were found to be assessed as LC, increased pressure by a growing rural population using local wild plants is likely to have a negative effect their conservation status in the future. This is especially true for species which are only used in one region in Guinea, like the important Meliaceae tree species Entandrophragma candollei Harms (VU), Entandrophragma angolense (NT), Khaya anthotheca (VU) and Khaya ivorensis (VU), which are only found in Guinée Forestière, and are harvested for fuel and as construction materials. These plants require locally adapted and culturally sensitive conservation efforts which can include new protected areas (Couch et al., 2023a) in a participatory process with local communities, to continue supporting their needs. An example is provided by a project setting up community-led native tree nurseries supporting livelihoods and reforestation efforts in the buffer zones of some of the Tropical Important Plant Areas identified in Guinea (Couch, 2020). Engaging the community in conservation actions, for example those undertaken as part of conservation efforts to protect Tropical Important Plant Areas and the newly developed National Conservation Action Plan for threatened trees of Guinea (Couch et al., 2023b), will increase the protection of these species and increase their populations through tree planting schemes.

The plant uses varied from region to region, depending on the species present in the locality and the community’s traditional knowledge, reflecting the botanical and cultural diversity of each region (Traoré et al., 2021). Yet, some species were recorded as useful in all four regions (Supplementary Table 2). Although various other reasons such as trade need further investigation, intermarriage between ethnolinguistic groups may play a role (Diallo, 1998). However, each region practices its own cultural traditions, depending on its ethnolinguistic group and the presence of plant species. For example, in Guinée Forestière, Thaumatococcus daniellii is a plant traditionally made into ordinary mats, and its use in wedding and death ceremonies is a sign of respect for their customs. This is similar to the case in Haute-Guinée, where oil extracted from Vitellaria paradoxa is used for cooking food and medicinal purposes. Also, in Guinée Maritime, Avicennia germinans (L.) L. wood is used for fish fumigation. As for Moyenne-Guinée, dominated by the Fouta Djalon mountain range, the inhabitants are known as pastoralists and trade specialists in Guinea (Diakhaby, 2017; Gibbs, 2024). Guinée Forestière had the highest number of wild useful plant species recorded in this study, representing c. 57% of the total number of wild useful plants of Guinea. This can be explained by the fact this region has the largest remaining forest cover and higher diversity of ethnic groups, who have extensive traditional knowledge of the use of these plants as medicines, materials and foods (Diawara, 2001).

Across the four geographical regions of Guinea, Fabaceae represent the plant family with most species with a recorded use, with the most common categories of use being medicine, material and food. This result is expected as Fabaceae are one of the most species-rich families of flowering plants, with >22,000 species (POWO, 2023). In sub-Saharan Africa, 10% of the 1,085 medicinal plants recorded to treat cardiovascular disease are Fabaceae (Odukoya et al., 2022). In an ethnobotanic study in Burkina Faso (Zizka et al., 2015), Fabaceae was the top family for useful plants, especially those used in medicine. For Guinean traditional medicine, 72 Fabaceae species were recorded as treatment for various illnesses These results are higher than, for example, in studies in Niger, where 39 Fabaceae species are used, among others, in the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery (Manzo et al., 2017), and Nigeria, where 17 species are used to treat hypertension and cardiovascular disease (Obode et al., 2020).

Some plants occur in several regions but are only used in some because, while the plant occurs in that region, there is no traditional knowledge of how to use it. This is the case of Ricinodendron heudelotii (‘njangsa’ seed oil), which is used in Guinée Forestière as a medicine and food but was not recorded for use in Guinée Maritime and Moyenne Guinée, where it also occurs. Another example is Thaumatococcus daniellii (‘miracle berry’), which is used in Guinée Forestière to make mats and for its edible fruit but was not recorded for use in Guinée Maritime where it also occurs. A last example is Borassus aethiopum Mart., a palm tree found both in Guinée Maritime and Haute Guinée, but more widely known and exploited in Moyenne Guinée for the manufacture of baskets.

Regionally, there are differences between the next most dominant families at both species and use level. These vary between Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Apocynaceae. During interviews in Haute Guinée we noted a predominance of Fabaceae, Phyllanthaceae, followed by Combretaceae at the species level. However, at the uses level, Fabaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Phyllanthaceae dominate, followed by Combretaceae. A study by Traoré et al. (2011) in the South-West of Burkina Faso, also reported Combretaceae dominating at the level of uses. The habitats in their study area are similar to those in Haute Guinée, where it is mainly savannah and open forest, and these are the more dominant families. In Haute Guinée, Euphorbiaceae, such as Alchornea cordifolia (Figure 5A), represent 21% in the study, this figure is higher than that found in Côte d’Ivoire by Béné et al. (2016) in Transua Department, where Euphorbiaceae only represented 8.51% of medicinal plants used in their study area.

Some of the most commonly cited useful species across the four geographical regions like Bitter Kola (Garcinia kola, Clusiaceae), African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa, Fabaceae), the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa, Sapotaceae; Figure 5B), the ‘njangsa’ seed oil (Ricinodendron heudelotii, Euphorbiaceae) and the Guinea Pepper tree (Xylopia aethiopica, Annonaceae; Figure 5C), are important in providing both food and medicine to local communities across the four regions of Guinea and are also used in other countries such as Bénin (Adomou et al., 2012; Houmenou et al., 2017; Azongnide et al., 2019; Codjia et al., 2018), Cameroon (Djeugap et al., 2013; Couvreur et al., 2022; Emmanuel et al., 2022; Ogwu et al., 2024), Côte d’Ivoire (Kouame et al., 2017), Ghana (Nyadanu et al., 2017), and Mali (Diarra et al., 2016). Four species (Alchornea cordifolia, Ricinodendron heudelotii, Uapaca guineensis, Uapaca togoensis) are especially important for material – these species are also common across West Africa, and the genus Uapaca Baill. is a keystone species in many tropical forests (Chawafambira et al., 2020). This while Elaeis guineensis (Figure 5D) has become globally important as the source of palm oil.