Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Chenopodium quinoa; photograph (c) Barry Walter, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Barry Walter, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-08-30

Chenopodium quinoa Willd.

Quinoa; White-quinoa

Amaranthaceae · Bolivia, Ecuador +3

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Chenopodium quinoa, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChenopodium quinoa, photograph (c) Lizet Mayli Mejía Penadillo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Chenopodium quinoa, photograph (c) Barry Walter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chenopodium quinoa, photograph (c) Barry Walter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chenopodium quinoa, photograph (c) Humber Alberto, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chenopodium quinoa, photograph (c) Humber Alberto, some rights reserved (CC BY) 20 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
2.1°C
Record low -1.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
15°C
Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,254mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, November to May (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa; , from Quechua kinwa or kinuwa) is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are high in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins and dietary minerals especially potassium and magnesium in amounts greater than in many grains. Quinoa is not a grass but rather a pseudocereal botanically related to spinach and amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), and originated in the Andean region of northwestern South America. It was first used to feed livestock 5,200–7,000 years ago, and for human consumption 3,000–4,000 years ago in the Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia and Peru.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Quinoa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,042 mm of 1,359 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,359 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,042 mm of it November to May. Wettest month March at 179 mm, driest month July at 36 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,038 mm to 2,481 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,254 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,359 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.1 °C, the absolute minimum -1.0 °C, 6 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 0.1 °C to 8.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.2 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -538 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Chenopodium quinoa through the yearWarmest months September, October, November and December, mean daily high 15 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 4.6 °C; 1,359 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°frost23.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–37RH 60–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 16 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 10–1614 / 10–1614 / 11–1614 / 11–1614 / 11–1714 / 11–1713 / 10–1714 / 11–1815 / 11–1815 / 11–1715 / 11–1615 / 10–16
Night °C7 / 4–97 / 4–97 / 4–96 / 3–96 / 2–95 / 1–95 / 0–95 / 1–86 / 2–96 / 3–97 / 4–97 / 4–9
Rain mm159 / 85–317167 / 106–317179 / 115–395161 / 61–358114 / 16–23272 / 12–13736 / 9–9839 / 16–8672 / 31–13798 / 64–187110 / 87–206152 / 94–213
DLI34 / 28–4134 / 29–4033 / 28–3832 / 28–3731 / 28–3530 / 26–3431 / 28–3534 / 30–3937 / 32–4436 / 31–4636 / 29–4634 / 28–44
RH %67 / 65–7068 / 65–7068 / 65–7067 / 61–7166 / 55–6963 / 54–6961 / 54–6960 / 56–6662 / 57–6666 / 58–6766 / 59–6867 / 61–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 16 grid cells holding the 17 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2065:2156 (-13.275, -72.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 16 distinct grid cells holding 17 of the 17 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2065:2156 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected -538 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3202 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina Northwest, Chile North · introduced: Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Baltic States, Argentina Northeast, Chile Central, Chile South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-0.517, -78.567 · in the densest population, 50 records (48% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 105 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 17 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 89 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 557 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 88 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 105 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chenopodium quinoa, photograph 1did not loadChenopodium quinoa, photograph 2did not loadChenopodium quinoa, photograph 3did not loadChenopodium quinoa, photograph 4did not loadChenopodium quinoa, photograph 5did not loadChenopodium quinoa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Lizet Mayli Mejía Penadillo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Barry Walter, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Humber Alberto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Tropaeolum tuberosum Tropaeolum tuberosum Anu Photo: CC BY, Sebastián OrdóñezUllucus tuberosus Ullucus tuberosus Ulluco Photo: CC0, author not statedPodocarpus sprucei Podocarpus sprucei Podocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, Paúl GonzálesCaucaea nubigena Caucaea nubigena Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Francisco Sánchez KarsteBidens andicola Bidens andicola Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Ariadna TripaldiMasdevallia bonplandii Masdevallia bonplandii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud Aronson

Other Chenopodium 18 in the reference

Chenopodium album Chenopodium album Lambsquarters Photo: CC0, author not statedChenopodium allanii Chenopodium allanii Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Liadan DickieChenopodium baccatum Chenopodium baccatum Coastal-saltbush Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyChenopodium berlandieri Chenopodium berlandieri Pitseed goosefoot Photo: CC0, author not statedChenopodium betaceum Chenopodium betaceum Striped Goosefoot Photo: CC0, ЕвгенияChenopodium candolleanum Chenopodium candolleanum Seaberry Saltbush Photo: CC BY, krumpiankingChenopodium ficifolium Chenopodium ficifolium Fig-leaved goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantChenopodium fremontii Chenopodium fremontii Fremont's goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Rachel StringhamChenopodium giganteum Chenopodium giganteum Tree spinach Photo: CC BY, Owen and Carol Fawcett.Chenopodium nutans Chenopodium nutans Climbing-saltbush Photo: CC BY, plantlookymageeChenopodium oahuense Chenopodium oahuense Hawaiian Goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoChenopodium opulifolium Chenopodium opulifolium Grey goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Chenopodium album f. subspontaneum; Chenopodium album subsp. quinoa; Chenopodium album var. laciniatum; Chenopodium album var. moquinii; Chenopodium album var. purpurascens and 48 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
Willd.
Native to
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru +2
Wild records
105 in range · 89 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (17 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -13.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected -538 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia's article Quinoa, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q139925)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…