Macachin

A flowering species of the Schoepfiaceae family, macachin (Arjona tuberosa) is an indigenous plant that only grows wild in Argentina and Chile, and in particular in Puerto Madryn’s peripheral area, despite the efforts to cultivate it.

The plant bears edible, watery tubers with excellent thirst-quenching properties that have long represented an essential source of nutrition for the people of the indigenous Mapuche community in Patagonia and the Valdes Peninsula. It was the Mapuche people who gave this plant its name, which they used to refer to different species of the Oxalis and Arjona genera.

The tubers are typically mashed and served as an accompaniment to meat dishes. Macachin’s survival is currently threatened due to its gradual disappearance, which has given rise to numerous projects that are making efforts to start growing the plant and thus protect it.