Chenopodium quinoa Willd.

A small herb. It grows 20 cm to 3 m high. The taproot is branched. The leaves vary in shape. They are toothed and somewhat grey-green. The flowers are grouped in clusters on the stalk. The flowers are small and without stalks. They are in dense clusters at the top of the plant. The seeds are 1-2.6 mm across. They can be white, yellow, red, purple, brown or black. Plants vary a lot in colour, flowering and other ways.

It is a tropical plant. It grows between 500 and 3,900 m altitude in the Andes. It can adapt to cold and drought. Plants grow with rainfalls between 250 mm to 1 500 mm. Once established plants can tolerate temperatures down to-5°C. The soil needs to be well drained. Some varieties are suited to acid soils with a pH of 4.5, and others to alkaline soils with a pH of 9.5. It suits hardiness zones 8-11.

The seed is used for soups and stews. They can be puffed or eaten as a side dish like rice. The seeds can be eaten or ground into flour. Young leaves can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Sprouted seeds are used in salads. The flower clusters are steamed like broccoli. They can be mixed with cheese, dipped in egg batter and fried. Many varieties contain saponins which give them a bitter taste. The outside skin is removed to get rid of these saponins.

Seed germinate whenever conditions are suitable. Seeds are scattered. Rates or 15-20 kg of seed per hectare are used. Normally a range of varieties are mixed to allow for variations in conditions.