Crossing Lepidium species

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I’ve been pondering this week, wondering if it would be possible to cross maca (Lepidium meyenii) with hoary cress (Lepidium draba).

Maca is a delicious domesticated plant with butterscotch-radish tasting roots that is, unfortunately, a little bit finicky about its climate. It wants temperatures of 20-80 degrees F for about eight months or longer, which is hard to achieve in most climates. I can do it if I start them in fall and keep my greenhouse above 20 degrees all winter, but it sure would be nice for them to be hardy to 5 or even 0 degrees, so I could grow them outside the greenhouse and not worry about them.

Hoary cress (also called whitetop) is a vigorous weed that spreads by underground roots and is almost as invasive as bindweed in my climate. It even seems to be allelopathic towards other brassicas, which makes it annoying when it volunteers in my brassica bed. It grows actively through the winter, flowers in spring, and goes kinda dead for the summer, sprouting back in the fall. So it has a similar growth cycle to maca; it’s just way more cold tolerant and probably way more heat tolerant.

Hoary cress is edible, and tastes pretty good. Raw, the leaves remind me of a slightly spicy broccoli. Cooked, the spiciness goes away and it tastes more like spinach. I think it tastes much better raw, but I don’t like the spiciness, so I have solved this conundrum by pour hot melted butter on top of the raw leaves, which cooks them just enough to neutralize the spiciness, and not enough to change the flavor. Score!

(Come to think of it, pouring hot water on top of raw leaves might achieve a similar result, for someone who doesn’t like butter on vegetables. I love butter on vegetables, so that’s what I tried, and it worked. :wink: )

So, I’ve been wondering this week if it would be possible to cross the two species, and then backcross with maca to get more butterscotch flavor and less spiciness into the population.

Is that something that is likely to accomplish my goals?

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Is the hoary cress root also edible?

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It should be in theory (it’s not poisonous), but it’s spicy and tough. Backcrossing to maca would definitely be necessary to get the roots to be softer and taste nicer.

Oh, I forgot to mention that hoary cress flower heads are edible too, and they’re the best part of the plant. Very similar to broccoli in flavor, just spicy.

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Sounds like an interesting project!

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I think so! Brassicaceae Family is well known for doing wide crosses so there’s a really good chance both Lepedium species can cross.
Here’s a small Lepedium Phylogenic Tree.

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And here’s the Lepedium Focuses Phylogenic Tree (Both species you were looking for are there). It’s also split into Sections but knowing Brassicaceae these aren’t strict.

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Here’s the Study I got the Phylogenic Tree From
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2307/3558431?sid=nlm%3Apubmed

I just wonder how keeping the Butterscotch-radish tasting root trait true to type when you do crosses. I hope it’s easy to select & you don’t loose much when crossing with other more Weedy Lepedium species that are WAYYY Hotter.

wow! That’s creative. I remember Sam Thayer says lots of the spicy Brassicaceae greens are better cooked or as fried greens. I wonder if the hot melted butter you put does roughly the same thing while still preserving the raw flavor? As for my mustards, I want to breed the heat out (Or only have it there as a flavor & not pain like with some milder arugula). Your method reminds of the viral hot-knife trend :joy: but this time useful.

Fantastic! This was what I was hoping for as I don’t eat butter, but then why pour hot water when you can boil them? Or maybe briefly dipping the leaves into boiling water achieves the same thing? It might just have a light boiling time, no?

Almost No Brassicaceae is actually toxic unless you ignore the pain & keep overdoing the spicyness, then you might run into some stomach problems.

Here’s the PFAF page on it

“A report says that the young leaves contain the toxin hydrogen cyanide, though does not give any more details” - According to PFAF, they also say in small amounts this is fairly harmless & actually has health benefits. I think it’s similar to how Garlic Mustard has Cyanide in it too but Green Dean at Eat The Weeds says the cyanide content is not a problem unless your an insect :joy:. Lepedium draba might just have it in too small of amounts to be harmful & cooking destroys cyanide soo… yea.

I have got to try Hoary Cress. Emiliy if your plants make any seeds please save some for me! Lepedium Breeding is something I want to do too!

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Do you want hoary cress seeds? It’s a very plentiful weed in my climate, so I could easily save some for you. Just a warning that it’s hard to get rid of. :wink: I mean, it’s seriously just as hard as bindweed to get rid of.

Maca seeds are findable online, but kinda expensive. I’ve bought some that I’ve planted, and they haven’t sprouted yet. I hope they will soon!

If I ever successfully make the cross, and I have enough seeds to share, I will happily share them. :slight_smile: It’s not something I’m actively planning to do right now, just one of those many little interesting ideas that crosses my mind and makes me think, “Hmmm . . .” If I happen to start noticing a cross, then I’d probably encourage it, but it looks like they’re far enough apart on the philogenetic tree that it wouldn’t be likely to happen by accident.

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Yes! Thanks for the warning, I’m excited to try spicy broccoli & breed a better type. The hard to Get rid of but edible & delicious are traits I like!

They may need cool weather to sprout, idk. I have not done much research on Lepedium or Maca yet. I’m learning so much, thanks for suggesting that species to research, it has good potential. So much to learn, so little time :joy: :sweat_smile: but it’s fun!

BET! I wish you the best luck on making it happen!

idk, even wide hybrids can happen spontaneously in Brassicaceae (If both plants flower times sync up). Take the exact phylogenic positions with a grain of salt, the whole tree is likely an entangled mess of a web with many species contributing genetics all over. I see no reason why Lepedium would be an exception. I haven’t seen hybrids between tribes but everything within the same tribe is pretty much fair game.

If anything, you could always rip off flowers & rub them with the other species. I’ve done that with Raddish flowers x Mustard Flowers & it worked! Sadly Groundhog ate the whole plant :sob:. I really find horrible locations to Ninja Garden at, I can’t help trying to make crappy places work.