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. It was found 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. History and controversy Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa gave a description of the plant following his visit to Peru circa 1598 and Bernabé Cobo gave a description of this plant in the early 17th century. Gerhard Walpers named the species Lepidium meyenii in 1843. In the 1990s, Gloria Chacon made a further distinction of a different species. She considered the widely cultivated natural maca of today to be a newer domesticated species, L. peruvianum. Most botanists doubt this distinction, however, and continue to call the cultivated maca L. meyenii. The Latin name recognized by the USDA similarly continues to be Lepidium meyenii. It has been debated whether it is botanically correct to consider meyenii and peruvianum to be distinct from one another. A 2015 multi-center study found differences in taxonomy, visual appearance, phytochemical profiles and DNA sequences when comparing L. meyenii and L. peruvianum, suggesting that they are in fact different and that their names should not be considered synonyms. Description The growth habit, size, and proportions of maca are roughly similar to those of radishes and turnips, to which it is related, but it also resembles a parsnip. The green, fragrant tops are short and lie along the ground. The thin, frilly leaves sprout in a rosette at the soil surface, not growing more than in height. The leaves show a dimorphism according to reproductive stage. They are more prominent in the vegetative phase, and are continuously renewed from the center as the outer leaves die. The off-white, self-fertile flowers are borne on a central raceme, and are followed by siliculate fruits, each containing two small reddish-gray ovoid seeds. Seeds