Nalca – Jurassic Rhubarb

Riding the Carretera Austral in southern Chile seems strangely familiar to those of us who live at the same latitude north of the Equator. The temperatures and constant rain and colors and smells and plants are what we would expect to see at 45 degrees near the Pacific; all the pines, invasive yellow Scotch Broom, ferns, and flowering lupins.

But one plant stands out as unique.

Nalca, known as Chilean rhubarb though it is not related to rhubarb, is unique to this area and is everywhere here. It is a prehistoric plant that evolved 150 million years ago in the late Jurassic so would have been familiar to the dinosaurs and Fred Flintstone, is adapted to the poor soil, and its size means it shades out any competition. It is crammed with nutritional goodness and the young shoots are eaten here peeled and dipped in salt or made into jams.