Plant · P-704

Canihua

Chenopodium pallidicaule

Canihua is a small-seeded Andean grain crop, a close relative of quinoa grown at extreme high altitude where frost can occur nine months of the year. The tiny seed - just one to two millimeters across - carries 15 to 19 percent protein and roughly four times the calcium of maize, and is toasted and ground into a flour used for bread, biscuits and a hot drink. Unlike quinoa, its saponins are not bitter, so the seed goes straight to flour without the soaking and rinsing quinoa needs. It is also cut for forage in drought-prone country, and gold and green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant.