Chenopodium quinoaWilld.

quinoa

WFO wfo-0000601712 Accepted WFO 2026-06 6 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–f · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by Philipp
fig. a Philipp, CC0 1.0 / 2011-03-23 / obs. 143908949
Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by duffyr
fig. b duffyr, CC0 1.0 / obs. 51904459
Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. c Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191974310
Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ
fig. d GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 20675649
Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. e Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191978354
Chenopodium quinoa, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. f Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191978576

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 5 botanical countries

Regions where Chenopodium quinoa is native: Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Chile North, Ecuador, Peru Argentina NorthwestBoliviaChile NorthEcuadorPeru
Native distribution of Chenopodium quinoa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Chile North CLN
Ecuador ECU
Peru PER

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 23 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chenopodium album f. subspontaneum Kuntze
  • Chenopodium album subsp. quinoa (Willd.) Kuntze
  • Chenopodium album var. quinoa (Willd.) Kuntze
  • Chenopodium canihua Cook
  • Chenopodium ccoyto Toro Torr.
  • Chenopodium ccuchi-huila Toro Torr.
  • Chenopodium chilense Pers.
  • Chenopodium guinoa Krock.
  • Chenopodium hircinum f. laciniatum (Moq.) Aellen
  • Chenopodium hircinum f. rubescens (Moq.) Aellen
  • Chenopodium hircinum f. viridescens (Moq.) Aellen
  • Chenopodium hircinum var. quinoa (Willd.) Aellen
  • Chenopodium nuttalliae Saff.
  • Chenopodium purpurascens var. punctulatum Moq.
  • Chenopodium quinoa f. purpureum Aellen
  • Chenopodium quinoa subsp. milleanum Aellen
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. laciniatum Moq.
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. lutescens Hunz.
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. melanospermum Hunz.
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. orbicans Murr
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. quinoa
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. rubescens Moq.
  • Chenopodium quinoa var. viridescens Moq.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.