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Lepidium meyenii
Also called Peruvian Ginseng
Maca is a short, low-growing Andean plant grown mainly for its fleshy, radish-like root, which is dried, powdered, or cooked. It is grown in high-altitude Peru and Bolivia, and its roots are sold in many colours.
Lepidium meyenii, known as maca or Peruvian ginseng, is an edible herbaceous biennial plant of the family Brassicaceae that is native to South America in the high Andes mountains of Peru and Bolivia. Its use increased after the late 1980s, when it was commercially discovered.
It is grown for its fleshy hypocotyl that is fused with a taproot, which is typically dried but may also be freshly cooked as a root vegetable. As a cash crop, it is primarily exported as a powder that may be raw or processed further as a gelatinized starch or as an extract. If dried, it may be processed into a flour for baking or as a dietary supplement.
Specific phenotypes (in maca, 'phenotype' pertains mainly to root color) have been propagated exclusively to increase commercial interest.
The average composition, on a dry matter basis, is 60–75% carbohydrates (primarily as polysaccharides).
Field pepperweed · Common pepperweed · Mountain pepperweed · Shining pepperweed · Cook's scurvy grass · Clasping pepperweed · Featherleaf pepperweed · Garden cress · Virginia pepperweed · Pepperweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lepidium meyenii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
