Buckwheat, or common buckwheat, is a plant cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as Fagopyrum tataricum, a domesticated food plant raised in Asia. Despite the name, buckwheat is not closely related to wheat, as it is not a grass. Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Buckwheat is referred to as a pseudocereal because its seeds' culinary use is the same as cereals', owing to their composition of complex carbohydrates.
Eriogonum is the scientific name for a genus of flowering plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus is found in North America and is known as wild buckwheat. This is a highly species-rich genus, and indications are that active speciation is continuing. It includes some common wildflowers such as the California buckwheat.
Fallopia convolvulus, the black-bindweed or wild buckwheat, is a fast-growing annual flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae native throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
William "Billie" Thomas Jr. was an American child actor best remembered for portraying the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang short films from 1934 until the series' end in 1944. He was a native of Los Angeles.
Native plants are plants indigenous to a given area in geologic time. This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area.
Fagopyrum tataricum, also known as Tartary buckwheat, green buckwheat, ku qiao, Tatar buckwheat, or bitter buckwheat, is a domesticated food plant in the genus Fagopyrum in the family Polygonaceae. With another species in the same genus, common buckwheat, it is often counted as a cereal, but unlike the true cereals the buckwheats are not members of the grass family. Thus, they are not related to true wheat. Tartary buckwheat is more bitter and contains more rutin than common buckwheat. It also contains quercitrin.
Rutin, also called rutoside, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and sophorin, is the glycoside combining the flavonol quercetin and the disaccharide rutinose. It is a citrus flavonoid found in a wide variety of plants including citrus.
Eriogonum fasciculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and eastern Mojave buckwheat.
Eriogonum longifolium var. harperi, also known as Harper's buckwheat or Harper's umbrella plant, is a dicot of the family Polygonaceae, found in areas of nutrient-poor shale soils in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. It lives inconspicuously in an immature vegetative stage for four or more years before developing a flowering stalk, then flowers and dies. It is listed as an endangered species by the state of Tennessee. It has eleven small populations in Alabama and five in Tennessee but its survival in Kentucky is uncertain. According to a leading expert, Professor James L. Reveal of the University of Maryland, its Kentucky population has been reportedly extirpated. Its 2006 Alabama Natural Heritage Program ranking was G4T2S1, demonstrating an opinion that it was "critically imperiled" in that state.
Eriogonum longifolium, the longleaf eriogonum or long-leaf wild buckwheat, is a dicot of the family Polygonaceae. In addition to populations of E. longifolium var. longifolium found in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, there are varieties or subspecies that are geographically isolated and at various levels of endangerment. According to the University of Michigan Native American Ethnobotony database, Eriogonum longifolium has been used as a food by the Kiowa and as a medicinal by the Comanche.
Eriogonum cinereum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names coastal buckwheat and ashyleaf buckwheat.
Eriogonum deflexum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names flatcrown buckwheat, flat-top buckwheat, and skeletonweed. This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, where it is common and grows in a variety of habitats, especially desert scrub. It is somewhat weedy where it is most abundant. This is an annual which varies in size from small patches on the ground to tangled bushes approaching two meters in height; it may be dense or thin and spindly. This is a brown or greenish weedy-looking herb with a many-branched stem. The leaves are located at the base of the plant and are rounded and woolly and one to four centimeters long. Small clusters of flowers appear at intervals along the branches with each flower only one to three millimeters wide and white or pinkish in color.
Eriogonum flavum is a species of wild buckwheat.
Eriogonum heracleoides is a plant of western North America that has many flowering clusters which are usually cream colored, or off-white. It can usually be found in rocky areas, such as sagebrush deserts and Ponderosa pine forests. Parsnipflower buckwheat is in the genus Eriogonum and the family Polygonaceae, which is a family of plants known as the "knotweed family". It inhabits much of the western part of the United States and southern British Columbia.
Bistorta bistortoides is a perennial herb in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. The species name remains unresolved.
Eriogonum pelinophilum is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common name clay-loving wild buckwheat. It is endemic to the state of Colorado in the United States, where it is known from only two counties. The most recent estimates available suggest there are 12 occurrences in existence for a total of about 278,000 individual plants in Delta and Montrose Counties. At least 7 occurrences observed in the past have not been relocated but are not yet believed extirpated. This plant is federally listed as an endangered species of the United States.
Eriogonum soredium is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Frisco buckwheat. It is endemic to Utah in the United States, where it is known only from Beaver County. There are four populations, all located in the San Francisco Mountains. It is a candidate for federal protection.
Buckwheat whisky is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made entirely or principally from buckwheat. It is produced in the Brittany region of France and in the United States. Soba shōchū is a similar but weaker beverage produced in Japan. Liquor can also be produced from buckwheat honey.
Kaletez, called galette de sarrasin in French, is a buckwheat pancake in Breton cuisine.
