maqui

Photo: Morrana — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Maqui — dark, mildly sweet 'superfruit' berry. Evergreen; low/none. Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer

Mature size

Evergreen shrub 3–5 m

Light

Full sun to partial (forest-margin pioneer)

Soil pH

5.0–6.5

Environment

Temperate rainforest

Native range

Central and southern Chile and adjacent Argentina, from roughly 30°S south to Chiloé — a pioneer of clearings, roadsides and burnt ground at the edge of the Valdivian rainforest, and among the first woody plants back after disturbance.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — a pioneer, putting on a metre or more a year while young

Spacing

250 cm (98 in) apart — about 6.3 m² (67 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, evergreen, ovate to lance-shaped 3–8 cm, thin and glossy with a toothed margin and a red leaf stalk; the young stems are red too.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and suckering, and it resprouts hard from the base after cutting or fire — the root system of a disturbance pioneer, and the reason a leggy maqui is cut back rather than replaced.

Fruit description

Glossy purple-black berries 4–6 mm in loose clusters, ripening in late summer, the flesh mildly sweet and faintly winey over a few small seeds. Fresh, it is pleasant rather than remarkable. What drives the commercial crop is chemistry: maqui carries one of the highest anthocyanin concentrations measured in any fruit, and the powder and juice trade is built on that rather than on flavour.

Propagation

Fresh seed germinates readily, though seedlings are a coin-toss for sex. Semi-hardwood cuttings in summer root well and are the only way to be sure of a female; suckers lift easily.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.