Lepidium meyenii Seeds | Maca

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Maca seeds (Lepidium meyenii)

LATIN NAME: Lepidium meyenii

COMMON NAME: Maca

Plant Profile

Known to gardeners as Maca, Lepidium meyenii is a low, hardy, perennial in the mustard family, native to hrt (hormone replacement therapy), for balancing hormones and improving sexual function. Maca grows where almost nothing else will, and it grows well. Root is dried, ground and eaten as flour, and plant is one of fine, tough crops of high cold valleys. It is a plant of open, sunny, sharply drained ground. Gardeners value it precisely for this blend of qualities.

Science & Biotechnology

Maca is botanically a radish relative, but its chemistry is unusual: the characteristic macamides — fatty-acid amides found in no other crop — are considered the signature constituents, alongside glucosinolates and the isothiocyanate p-methoxybenzyl isothiocyanate. In a 12-week double-blind trial in healthy men, maca improved self-reported sexual desire from week eight without altering testosterone, and a 2010 systematic review found limited but positive randomised evidence for sexual function in men and postmenopausal women. As a staple food of the high Andes it has an excellent safety record at food-level intakes.

Within the mustard family, Lepidium meyenii is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. Maca draws researchers of the high Andes, studied for thick, fleshy root and way plant grows where frost and wind allow little else. With present-day seed handling, raising this species well within the reach of any careful grower.

Uses & Benefits

Maca brings genuine presence to the garden and earns its keep across the growing season. Maca is a modest plant of the high Andes with a very big reputation. It has been written up in nutritional and agricultural papers for hardy root and long record as a mountain food, and it is a fine, tough plant of open, sunny, sharply drained garden. Maca is one of fine, tough crops of high cold valleys, and thick, fleshy root has been dried, ground and cooked into porridges and sweet drinks of mountain people for a very long time. Thereafter it wants only the ordinary attentions any garden plant receives.

Maca, Lepidium meyenii, is the famous Andean root for energy and vitality, one of the best-selling adaptogens worldwide, with human studies on stamina and mood; garden cress is its peppery, vitamin-rich salad cousin.

Growing from Seed

Starting Maca from seed is simple and satisfying. Level a tray of loose seed compost, sow evenly, cover to about the seed’s own depth, and keep it moist in full light. Prick the seedlings out once they are large enough to handle, grow them on in bright light, and plant out when conditions allow.

Our Take

Maca settles in quickly once it finds its footing. Its wants are few — a sunny spot, soil that drains, and time to settle in.

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) - picture 2

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