Herb. No. 153 · Brassicaceae
High Andes of Peru and Bolivia — a 4,000-meter mustard, not a humid lowland crop.
Native · South America
Native Also grown
LegalGentleplant
Maca
Lepidium meyenii
An Andean mustard whose swollen root is a staple above 4,000 meters — stamina folklore in a radish.
Maca is a high-Andean Lepidium grown for the hypocotyl, dried and eaten as a food. Traditional use is as a staple and a fertility folklore. Culinary powder in porridge is the path. It wants a short, brutal season and does not like a humid Georgia summer. Most kitchens buy the dried root.
Flavor
Butterscotch, radish, malt. Cooked is nutty; raw powder is mustard-dusty.
Parts used
Dried hypocotyl
Helpful
- A true food of the altiplano
Cautions
- Not a temperate garden crop
- Thyroid caution in huge amounts of raw brassica powder