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.
The genus Fagopyrum is in the flowering plant family Polygonaceae. It includes some important food plants, such as F. esculentum (buckwheat) and F. tataricum. The genus is native to the Indian subcontinent, much of Indochina, and central and southeastern China. Species have been widely introduced elsewhere, throughout the Holarctic and parts of Africa and South America.
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.
Eriogonum crocatum, the Conejo buckwheat or saffron buckwheat, is a species of Eriogonum, or wild buckwheat. It is endemic to the Conejo Valley and surrounding regions in Ventura County, California It grows on open, dry hillsides, often in crags in rock faces.
Eriogonum nudum is a perennial shrub of the wild buckwheat genus which is known by the common name naked buckwheat or nude buckwheat.
Eriogonum fasciculatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and eastern Mojave buckwheat.
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 diclinum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Jaynes Canyon buckwheat. It is native to the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon, where it is an uncommon member of plant communities on serpentine soils. This is a small dioecious shrub forming low, thick mats rarely exceeding 20 centimeters in height. The curving, oval-shaped leaves are woolly and greenish gray in color, growing up to two centimeters long. The plant flowers in yellow to reddish rounded inflorescences, male plants producing clusters of staminate flowers, and female plants producing larger clusters of pistillate flowers.
Eriogonum giganteum, with the common name St. Catherine's lace, is a species of wild buckwheat in Southern California.
Eriogonum heermannii is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Heermann's buckwheat. It is native to the southwestern United States from California to Utah where it grows on rocky slopes, desert flats, and dry washes.
Eriogonum latifolium is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names seaside buckwheat and coast buckwheat. This plant is native to the coastline of the western United States from Washington to central California, where it is a common resident of coastal bluffs and scrub.
Eriogonum lobbii is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Lobb's buckwheat or prostrate buckwheat. It is native to most of the mountain ranges of northern California and their extensions into Oregon and Nevada. It is found in a number of mountain plant communities.
Eriogonum nummulare is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names Kearney's buckwheat and money buckwheat. It is native to the Great Basin of the United States from California to Utah, where it grows on sandy slopes and plateaus.
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.
Eriogonum argillosum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names clay buckwheat, clay-loving buckwheat, and Coast Range wild buckwheat. It is endemic to California, where it is known only from San Benito and Monterey Counties. It grows on clay substrates, often of serpentine origin. This is an annual herb up to 30 to 60 centimeters tall with a basal patch of oval-shaped, woolly leaves and a naked stem. The top of the stem is occupied by the inflorescence, a cyme with several clusters of tiny white or pink flowers.
Eriogonum breedlovei is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Paiute buckwheat. It is endemic to the High Sierra Nevada of California, where its two varieties are uncommon members of the flora in granite and limestone rocky high mountain habitat.
Eriogonum panamintense is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Panamint Mountain buckwheat. It is native to several of the desert mountain ranges of eastern California and western Nevada, including the Panamint Range. It grows in various types of mountain ridge habitat, such as sagebrush and coniferous woodland.
Eriogonum pendulum is a rare species of wild buckwheat known by the common name Waldo buckwheat. It is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of Josephine County, Oregon, and Del Norte County, California, where it is a member of the serpentine soils flora.
Eriogonum spergulinum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name spurry buckwheat.
