[2] Lerén is a minor food crop in the American tropics, but was one of the earliest plants domesticated by pre-historic Amerindians in South America.

Goeppertia allouia is native to Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

Indigenous people of the Americas have used the durable leaves to make traditional medicines and as baby clothing.

The rhizomes, harvested at the same time, are tolerant of both drying and flooding, and divided and replanted again at the onset of the rainy season.

Lerén, along with arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), squash (Cucurbita moschata), and bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) were being eaten and possibly cultivated in Colombia by about 9000 BCE.

For example, the people of the Las Vegas culture on the arid and semi-arid Santa Elena Peninsula of Ecuador likely grew lerén by about 9000 BCE.