Taxon: Lepidium meyenii Walp.

Common names:

• Peruvian-ginseng   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – English
  
• maca   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – Spanish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Human food: vegetable   (fide Cornucopia; V. Dorofeev, pers. comm. 1996)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide B. León, pers. comm. 1996; CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  

More:

View phytochemical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Western South America: Peru - Moquegua, Puno

• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Western South America: Bolivia; Peru
  Southern South America: Argentina [n.w.]

References:

• Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi. 1993. Catalogue of the flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45. (L Peru)
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs. (CRC MedHerbs ed2)
• Facciola, S. 1990. Cornucopia, a source book of edible plants. (Cornucopia)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop - on-line resource. (Ecocrop)
• Genyi Li et al. 2001. Glucosinolate content in maca (Lepidium peruvianum Chacón) seeds, sprouts, mature plants and several derived commercial products. Econ. Bot. 55:255–262. [= L. peruvianum G. Chacón de Popovici].
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6. (Mansf Ency)
• Kunkel, G. 1984. Plants for human consumption. (L Edible Pl)
• León, J. 1964. The "maca" (Lepidium meyenii), a little known food plant of Perú. Econ. Bot. 18:122–127.
• Macbride, J. F. et al., eds. 1936–1971. Flora of Peru.; new ser. 1980- (F Peru)
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2. (Food Feed Crops US)
• Marticorena, C. & M. Quezada. 1985. Catalogo de la flora vascular de Chile. (L Chile)
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2. (Herbs Commerce ed2)
• Ochoa, C. & D. Ugent. 2001. Maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp.: Brassicaceae): a nutritious root crop of the Central Andes. Econ. Bot. 55:344–345.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) - on-line resource. (Pl Names)
• Quirós, C. F. et al. 1996. Physiological studies and determination of chromosome number in maca, Lepidium meyenii (Brassicaceae). Econ. Bot. 50:216–223.
• Toledo, J. et al. 1998. Genetic variability of Lepidium meyenii and other Andean Lepidium species (Brassicaceae) assessed by molecular markers. Ann. Bot. (Oxford) 82:523–530.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Lepidium meyenii.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Lepidium meyenii. Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Synonyms:

• (=) Lepidium peruvianum G. Chacón de Popovici
  

Check other databases for Lepidium meyenii Walp.:

• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.
  Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Check other databases for images:

• PlantSystematics.org
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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