Theoretical concepts of Historical Ecology were used to assess the traditional knowledge at one coastal region of São Paulo State, Pedro de Toledo Nucleus, at Serra do Mar State Park. Free listing exercises accessing semantic domains considered relevant to traditional knowledge were applied to local settlers. Forty-two interviews were carried out with adults (between 18 and 75 y.o.) regarding information on cultivated plants and trees that were part of the interviewees’ knowledge and data were analyzed through Smiths’ S, an index of data frequency. Results show that “cultivated plants” and “trees” are high psychological reality domains for that community. Methodological resources of cognitive anthropology which apply to the understanding of historical ecology showed to be high value multidisciplinary tools of easy and broad applicability on ecological studies.