DESCRIPTION OF BUCKWHEAT 265 



BUCKWHEAT 



329. Origin and History. Buckwheat is one of the few 

 grains which do not belong to the grass family, flax being 

 the only other one which is of importance in America. It 

 is a member of the dock or buckwheat family, the Poly- 

 gonaceae, which includes few useful plants, but numer- 

 ous bad weeds such as the docks, smartweeds, and knot- 

 weeds. A peculiarity of this family is the three-angled 

 (rarely four-angled) seeds. The ordinary buckwheat, Fago- 

 pyrum fagopyrum, is a native of the Amur River district of 

 Manchuria, where it is still found growing wild. A type 

 which is grown to some extent in Maine and Vermont is the 

 Tartary buckwheat, or "India wheat/' Fagopyrum Tatar- 

 icum, with smaller seeds, broader leaves, and more slender 

 growth. This plant is a native of the plains in the interior 

 of Siberia and Tartary. The name buckwheat is supposed 

 to have been originally "beech-wheat" from the resemblance 

 of the grain to small beech nuts. 



330. Botanical Description. The buckwheat plant is 

 entirely different from that of the cereals, consisting of a 

 single, branching, succulent stem, broad leaves, and a main 

 root with several branches. The plant grows usually about 

 3 feet tall, with several branches, each of which ends in a 

 flat-topped cluster of flowers. These clusters also spring 

 from the axils of the leaves. The leaves are alternate, tri- 

 angular, and about as broad at the base as they are long, 

 the width varying from 2 to 4 inches. The flowers are white 

 or pinkish-white, without petals, but with a five-parted 

 calyx, eight stamens, and a three-parted pistil. The flower 

 produces a single three-angled seed, grayish or brown in 

 color, about one-tenth of an inch long. 



