Encyclopedia of Life · EOL (see source)
OverviewAI-generated
*Lepidium meyenii* is a species of plant in the family Brassicaceae. It belongs to the genus *Lepidium* and is classified within the order Brassicales, class Magnoliopsida, phylum Tracheophyta, and kingdom Plantae. The species is commonly known as maca, 印加萝卜, or 玛咖, with the short name *L. meyenii*.
The native range of *Lepidium meyenii* includes Northwest Argentina, Bolivia, North Chile, and Peru. Records from the Encyclopedia of Life also list Central Chile. Database entries indicate 495 occurrences and 122 records, with media available from institutions in the US, DAV, F, MO, and GH.
Synthesized by Vinony from 27 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, Encyclopedia of Life, Plants of the World, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
SPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderBrassicales
- FamilyBrassicaceae
Chile Central
via GBIF · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 122
- With media
- 122
- Family
- Brassicaceae
- Collections
- US, DAV, F, MO, GH
- Recorded in
- Peru, Argentina, Bolivia
Wikidata facts
Show 6 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- Commons category
- Lepidium meyenii
- taxon name
- Lepidium meyenii
- taxon common name
- maca
- short name
- L. meyenii
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
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. It was rediscovered for commercial purposes at the Meseta de Bombón plateau close to Lake Junin in the late 1980s. 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.
Its Spanish and Quechua names include maca-maca, maino, ayak chichira, and ayak willku.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lepidium meyenii” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.