Where is maca produced? An introduction to its main producing regions

Maca is a plant of the Brassicaceae family, tribe Lepidieae, and its root resembles a small round radish, is yellow and purple in color, and is edible. It is rich in nutrients and has earned the reputation of “South American ginseng.” So, where is the maca producing area?

1. Maca producing area

The maca producing area is in the Andes Mountains of South America, where it grows in highland mountain areas at an altitude of more than three thousand meters, requiring a day-night temperature difference of over 30°C, abundant rainfall, and surrounding freshwater lakes. Maca can be cultivated artificially. In China, the places suitable for maca growth are mainly Lijiang, Shangri-La and Jiuzhaigou, which have the natural conditions of complex terrain and distinct three-dimensional climate.

2. What does maca look like?

Maca is an annual to perennial herb or subshrub, often with simple hairs, glandular hairs and columnar hairs; stems single or numerous, branched; leaves herbaceous to papery, linear-subulate to broadly elliptic, entire, serrate to pinnately parted; racemes terminal and axillary, petals white, a few tinged with pink or slightly yellow, linear to spatulate. Its underground root is 10 to 14 cm long and 3 to 5 cm in diameter at the widest part, is yellow and purple in color, and has a dense texture with a certain hardness. In Peru, the pale yellow root is the most common, and its shape and taste are also the best.

3. How is maca eaten?

The root of maca is edible. Its fresh root can be stir-fried with meat or other vegetables, or dried in the sun and then boiled in water or milk before eating, or made into a cold dish. Local indigenous people often press the fresh root with honey and fruit into juice and drink it as a beverage.