Ethnobotany of Cafiihua (Chenopodium paUidicaule),
Rustic Seed Crop of the Altiplano 1
D A N I E L W. G A D E 2
Cafiihua? Chenopodium pallidicaule Ael-
len, is a native Andean food plant that has
helped sustain untold generations of Indian
folk in one of the world's most difficult ag-
ricultural regions. Perhaps no other crop is
so resistant to the combination of frost,
drought, salty soil, and pests or requires
such little care in its cultivation. At the
same time, few grains have such a high pro-
tein content as does cafiihua (13.8%), sur-
passing quinoa (12.3%), wheat (12.0%),
barley (9.7%) or maize (9.4%) (2).
Long considered a variety of quinoa
(Chenopodium quinoa), it was not until
1929 that cafiihua was classified as a dis-
tinct species. Cafiihua is an erect or semi-
prostrate, highly branched plant that grows
from 10 to 24 in. high. Thus it is a much
shorter plant than quinoa, which ranges
from 16 in. to as tall as 6 ft., if grown in
warmer zones and fertilized soil (Fig. 1).
Significant differences between the two
chenopods, presented in detail elsewhere
(4), are also found in the inflorescence and
flower characters.
Red, yellow, or green color variation oc-
curs in the stalks and leaves of cafiihua. The
utricles, usually a whitish gray, may some-
times be tinged with pink. Cafiihua also
varies in precocity; one kind matures in only
95 days from the date of sowing, although
the preferred varieties take about 150 days
before they are harvested.
Distribution
Cafiihua cultivation and use have not sig-
nificantly spread beyond the Altiplano, the
1 This study was aided by a grant from the
Institutional Grant Funds of the University of
Vermont. Submitted for publication April 1,
1969.
2 Present address: Department of Geography,
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.
3 Cafiihua is the classical Queehua form and
most common spelling for the name of this
plant, but it has also been variously written as
eafiigua, cafiahua, cafiiwa, kafiiwa, etc.
55
lofty semi-arid plateau region hemmed in by
high ranges of the Central Andes (Fig. 2).
The Altiplano, shared by Peru and Bolivia,
lies entirely above 12,500 ft. in elevation
and has yearly temperatures that average
less than 50~ Frosts occur in at least nine
months of the year and often strike in Janu-
ary and February at the height of the grow-
ing season.
It is on the Altiplano where cafiihua has
been able most successfully to compete for
agricultural attention, and it is very unlikely
that it ever expanded beyond this region as
a major crop. The most intensive produc-
tion of cafiihua occurs north of Lake Titicaca
in the Department of Puno, which has over
90% of the 6,500 hectares under cafiihua
cultivation in Peru (3). In Bolivia, La Paz
Department has the most land in cafiihua,
and as one moves south the plateau becomes
increasingly arid and there is little agricul-
ture of any kind. Outside the Altiplano, the
plant is sporadically cultivated only at very
high elevations (5).
Whereas quinoa--known from Colombia
to Argentina--may be grown in temperate
valleys as low as 8,000 ft., cafiihua is rarely
cultivated below 12,000 ft. The upper limit
of quinoa farming is ca. 14,000 ft.; in con-
trast, cafiihua may be seen in protected sites
such as stone enclosures as high as 15,000
ft. above sea level.
History
While the manner in which a crop was
domesticated is largely speculative, cafiihua
has a strong tendency to volunteer and may
have been a weed in quinoa or potato fields
before it was a cultivated plant. Eventually,
these weeds may have been cultivated for
their own value when crops repeatedly
failed because of the rigors of the harsh
climate. In this way, cafiihua, by adding
significant amounts of essential amino acids
in a meat-scarce diet based primarily on
starchy tubers, may have opened up a more
efficient use of the highest ecological niche
56 ECONOMIC BOTANY

FIG. 1. Comparison of the two chenopod crops of South America: quinoa on the left, and the
much shorter and more branched cafiihua on the right.

available to farming folk anywhere. Yet it Agricultural Complex

would appear that human selection of this
seed plant was only partial, for eafiihua still
maintains some of the rustic features of
primitive grains known in the Near East.
Archeological evidence of this plant is
unavailable, and it is not known how long
before the coming of the Spaniards cafiihua
may have been in cultivation. After 600
A.D., a notably high cultural level was
achieved by the Tiahuanaco people near the
southern end of Lake Titicaca; cafiihua may
have been one of the important protein
sources of this civilization. Later the Incas
spread their control over the high plateau,
but there is little to suggest that they dif-
fused the cultivation of this crop throughout
their empire. When the Spaniards arrived
in the 16th Century, it was one of the im-
portant crops on the Altiplano (4).
Today, more than 400 years after the be-
ginning of European influence, cafiihua is
still an important part of the agricultural
complex in many Altiplano communities.
This complex includes five other crops do-
mesticated in the Andean highlands: Sola-
num tuberosum; three hardy tubers, Oxalis
tuberosus, Ullucus tuberosus, and Tropaeo-
lum tuberosum; and quinoa. The only Eu-
ropean field crop successfully introduced to
the high plateau was barley, now an integral
part of the farming system. Altiplano agri-
culture has changed remarkably little since
pre-Conquest times, for it is precisely this
environmental zone of the Andes that owes
least to Old World introductions.
Cafiihua fits well into the agricultural sys-
tem by serving as a soil complement and as
a form of crop insurance. Most farming on
 CADE: ETHNOBOTANYOF GADE 57

ALTIPLANO of PERU and BOLIVIA

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~. {~: 9 La Paz -- Extentof C*~'ihu* I~ q'ee,i.

- / - ~ T,a.uon<,~ . ~ / %,,
\ / t.. ', :::::::A,,,,,o.o I so =o,o<
.J~%~ ~ u ~ %% -=DISTRIBUTI'O'N ;;'= "
"/ i II 0 N " Oruro
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" ~ ~ ~ xSl '~ ,,
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r "k'l ~ I
!I l
lI I
il /
9 I / - - - - Altlplano boundary

19o I, t / ........ Zone of most intensive

........
miles
"~ ,.. / cafiihua c u l t i v a t i o n
"It. DWG
Fic. 2. Most cafiihua is grown in the northern half of the Altiplano.

the Altip]ano is based on a two- or three- are not used, and, therefore, cultivation can-
year rotational scheme followed by a long not be continuous on any one plot. When
but variable (five to 10 years) fallow pe- the heavy sod is broken up with a plow or
riod, a necessary practice because fertilizers a digging stick, tubers are invariably planted
58 ECONOMIC BOTANY
Fro. 3. In the foreground cafiihua is being harvested, beyond which is quinoa which will be
harvested somewhat later.
that first year. In the second and third year,
cafiihua, quinoa, or barley are sown in these
same plots, a logical follow-up, because seed
plants have somewhat different soil nutrient
requirements than do tubers. Which seed
crop dominates depends usually on the mi-
cro-climate of the local area, yet the simul-
taneous tillage of several species becomes a
form of Indian life insurance. If frosts occur
and destroy the growing barley and quinoa
crop, cafiihua will usually survive unscathed;
likewise, if the rainfall is below average,
cafiihua will yield better than the others.
Cafiihua Cultivation
Because the soil in the second-year plots
(callpares) has already been loosened by the
work of harvesting potatoes several months
before, no plowing is done. Instead, a light
zig-zag motion of the raucana, an adze-type
hoe, is used to perforate the topsoil. Most
cafiihua is sown in September or October,
the exact time depending on the arrival of
the rainy season. The seed is sown broad-
cast or in poorly delineated rows, but, after
the sowing, little attention is given to the
growing plants until the harvest. No organic
or chemical fertilizers are applied nor is the
land irrigated. The cafiihua fields are only
casually weeded during the growing season,
so that by harvest time, weeds and native
grasses have already resumed partial pos-
session of the soil. Unlike potatoes, cafiihua
is not seriously attacked by plant diseases,
although there are minor insect pests.
By the time cafiihua plants are 2 in. high,
they are already quite resistant to drought.
Because of its low growth form, cafiihua is
also resistant to unusually low temperatures
and can bear frost that would kill barley. In
its response to temperatures on the Alti-
piano, cafiihua will germinate at 40~
 GADE: ETHNOBOTANY
FxG. 4. Cafiihua fruits are here separated from foreign matter with a crude metal sifter.
flower at 50~ and set mature seed at 60 ~
F. A snowfall or strong wind that may
flatten a field of barley or quinoa does not
adversely affect cafiihua. After a plant be-
gins to flower and set seed, the major threat
to a successful cafiihua harvest is hail, which
can spell rapid disaster to the crop.
Harvest
The harvest period for cafiihua on the
Altiplano begins normally in March and ex-
tends into April. All cafiihua plants in the
same field do not mature at the same time,
a characteristic of other rustic crops that
have not been bred for simultaneous ripen-
ing. Furthermore, cafiihua is harvested be-
fore the seed has completely matured, other-
wise the seeds scatter to the ground as the
plant is removed and would be lost. Ordi-
narily, the plant is easily pulled out of the
ground, for the root system is relatively shal-
OF GADE 59
low (Fig. 3). If the soil is moist at harvest
and clings thickly to the roots, the plant
may be cut with a small sickle or knife. As
the cafiihua is cut or pulled, the peasants
pile it into colorful stacks or a r c o s to a
height of some 5 ft.
Immediately after the cafiihua plant has
been removed from the ground, threshing is
done by beating (with supple sticks curved
on the striking end) the plants which have
been spread on a blanket. In this work,
those fruits that are ripe are removed from
the axillary clusters and also from the peri-
anth.
The stacks are again formed and allowed
to dry for about two weeks, during which
time they are guarded by children against
flocks of seed-eating birds. After the cafiihua
has been well dried, the sheaves are threshed
again with the same sticks. The Old World
practice of driving animals around a thresh-
60 ECONOMIC BOTANY
Fro. 5. An Indian girl carefully burns cafiihua residue for the ash, which is high in calcium
content and used by coca chewers.
ing floor is hardly ever used to thresh
cafiihua (or quinoa), although it is common
with wheat and barley. Some of the stalks
and twigs that remain ("quiri") after the
threshing are kept for feeding cattle later in
the year, when pastures dry up and forage
is scarce, and some is kept to be burned for
the calcium in the ash.
The next step in the harvest is winnowing
to separate the fruits from the small bits of
foreign matter ("jipi") accumulated from
threshing. Cafiihua is winnowed by the
natural air currents and often a second time
with the using of a crude sieve (Fig. 4).
After the miniscule cafiihua fruits are dried
about a week in the sun, they are stored in
a special part of the dwelling.
Use of Cafiihua
Cafiihua is valued not only for its seed
but also for its ash. When burned (Fig. 5),
the residue from threshing and winnowing
forms an ash that is in great demand among
Indian chewers of coca, the narcotic leaf
traded throughout highland Peru and Bo-
livia. The ash is mixed with water to form
a paste called llipta in Quechua, which is
dried and made into small round balls or
flatfish cakes. This product provides an
article of trade to other Indians who use the
calcium contained in the paste to extract the
alkaloid from the coca leaf to acquire the
desired narcotic effect. Llipta made from
cafiihua ash contains more calcium than that
of quinoa ash, but both are used. This use
sets limits to cafiihua as a forage crop, al-
though ranchers on the Altiplano will oc-
casionally grow it for this purpose. Unlike
quinoa, the fresh leaves of cafiihua are not
used as a potherb.
The preparation of cafiihua seed as food
involves a rather laborious process. First, to
 GADE: E T H N O B O T A N Y OF GADE
loosen the cafiihua seed from the pericarp
surrounding it, the fruit must be soaked in
water, a procedure that also helps to rid
cafiihua of its original bitter taste. The tiny
seed is then removed from the covering, usu-
ally by stamping on it with the feet. After
the seed is dried in the sun, it may be eaten
as is or further processed. Most cafiihua on
the Altiplano is made into a flour called
cahihuaco by first toasting the seeds in large
earthen jars and then milling them on a sad-
dlestone (ccona). The nutty-tasting flour is
mixed with milk, broth, or water to form a
mush that is the traditional breakfast food
among rural folk in this region. Cafiihua
flour is also made into small cookies
(quispiho) and is sometimes added to im-
ported wheat flour to make bread. Formerly
the seed was sprouted, milled, and used to
make a mildly alcoholic drink, either pure
or added to homemade barley beer, but this
practice is now rare.
Some cafiihua and cafiihua products are
sold in fairs and markets outside the Alti-
piano in exchange for maize, fruit, and other
commodities of the temperate and tropical
zones. Cafiihua is not, however, primarily
a commercial product, and most is consumed
by the family that grows it. Cafiihua prod-
ucts are a traditional food taken by Indians
on their exhausting travels, reputedly be-
cause of their high food value.
Today, traditional peasant life in the high
Andes is changing, as ideas of Western ef-
ficiency increasingly influence the form and
content of subsistence-oriented agriculture.
61
Whether the farmers of the northern part of
the Altiplano continue in the future to grow
cafiihua on a large scale will depend prob-
ably on the genetic transformation of this
rustic crop plant to make it a more efficient
food producer.
Summary
Cafiihua, Chenopodium paUidicaule, is a
weedy plant cultivated by Indian farmers on
the Altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Because
cafiihua is resistent to low temperatures,
drought, salty soil, disease, and pests, it has
achieved importance in the agricultural sys-
tem, but only because it prospers where
other crops are often marginal food produc-
ers. Its dual usage of seed and ash, high
protein content, and function as an insur-
ance crop explain its persistence, but its fu-
ture role in Altiplano agriculture may de-
pend on its genetic improvement.
L i t e r a t u r e Cited
1. Jim6nez de la Espada, M. 19:56. Relaciones
geogr~fficas de Indias. Vol. 1. Edic.
Atlas, Madrid, pp. 337, 344, 347-8.
2. Leung, Woot-Tseun Wu, et al. 1961. Food
composition table for use in Latin Amer-
ica. Nat. Inst. of Health, Bethesda.
3. Per6 1965: Estadistica agraria. 1966. Min.
de Agric., Lima.
4. Simmonds, N. W. 1965. The grain cheno-
pods of the tropical American highlands.
Econ. Bot., 19: 223-235.
5. Vargas C., C. 1938. Nota etnobot/mica
sobre la cafiihua, Rev. Arg. de Agron.,
5:224-230.