It was a key component of the diets of Taiwanese indigenous peoples and remains culturally and culinarily significant.

In Chinese it is known as 紅藜 (simplified 红藜, literally "red goosefoot", Mandarin hónglí).

[1] Chenopodium formosanum was a key component of the diets of Formosan indigenous peoples, but it had largely disappeared from cultivation by the 2000s.

This rapid expansion quickly glutted the market and surplus produce had to be stored.

[1] Chenopodium formosanum is part of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity's Ark of Taste.