Tartary Buckwheat

Fagopyrum tataricum is homostylous and self-pollinating. Cultivated plants appear to be most closely related to the wild ones in southwestern Sichuan, China. Tartary buckwheat is a less important crop plant and is encountered less frequently in the flora area than is F. esculentum. It is cultivated in mountainous areas of Asia and elsewhere (C. G. Campbell 1997).

Stems ascending or erect, yel-lowish green, sometimes red-tinged, sparingly branched, (10-)30-80(-100) cm. Leaves: ocrea brownish hyaline, loose, funnel-form, 5-11 mm, margins truncate to obtuse, eciliate, glabrous or puberulent proximally; petiole (0.5-)1-7 cm, usually puberulent adaxially; blade palmately veined with 7-9 primary basal veins, broadly triangular to broadly hastate, 2-7 × 2-8 cm, base truncate or cordate to sagittate, margins ciliolate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, racemelike, 2-10 cm, not crowded at stem apices; peduncle 1-6 cm, puberulent in lines. Pedicels ascending or recurved, 1-3 mm. Flowers often cleistogamous, homostylous; perianths green with whitish margins; tepals triangular to ovate, 1.5-3 mm, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute; stamens ca. 2 as long as perianth; styles 0.1-0.4 mm; stigmas purplish. Achenes uniformly gray or, infrequently, mottled with blackish spots medially, bluntly 3-gonous, 5-6 × 3-5 mm, faces irregularly rugose, angles usually obscure in proximal 1/ 2, more conspicuous in distal 2, unwinged, often sinuate-dentate. 2n = 16 (China).

Herbs annual. Stems erect, green, 30-70(-100) cm tall, branched, striate, papillate. Petioles ca. as long as blade; leaf blade broadly triangular, 2-7 × 2-8 cm, both surfaces papillate along veins, base cordate or truncate, margin entire, apex acute; ocrea brown, ca. 5 mm, membranous, oblique. Inflorescence terminal or axillary, racemose, several racemes together paniculate, lax; bracts ovate, 2-3 mm, apex acute, each 2-4-flowered. Pedicel 3-4 mm, articulate at middle. Perianth white or greenish; tepals elliptic, ca. 2 mm. Stamens included. Stigmas capitate. Achenes much exceeding persistent perianth, black-brown, narrowly ovoid, trigonous, 5-6 mm, surfaces grooved; angles rounded below middle, sharply acute above, sometimes sinuate-dentate along angles. Fl. May-Sep, fr. Jun-Oct. 2n = 16*.

Annual, glabrous, commonly green herb, up to 1 m tall, stem glabrous or slightly pubescent. Leaves petioled, petiole 0.5-6 cm long, the upper short and lower long petioled; lamina broadly triangular-cordate, triangular-hastate or sagittate-cordate, acuminate, 2-8 x 1.2-5 cm. Ochrea hyaline, slightly truncate, 5-7 mm long, brown. Inflorescence axillary and terminal, pedunculate, corymbose cyme. Flowers white or pink. Perianth segments 5-partite, subequal, oblong-ovate, obtuse, entire, 1.3-1.7 x c. 0.5-1. Stamens 8, alternating with rounded glands, filaments unequal with dorsifixed anthers. Ovary 3-angled; styles 3, free, half the length of the ovary; stigmas capitate. Nuts deeply 3-angled, angles rounded in the upper part, and wrinkled and somewhat crenate in the lower part, blackish-brown, 4-6 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, narrowed above.

Distribution: Central Europe, Central Asia, India, China, Japan, Xizang, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

C. Asia, Himalaya, Siberia, often cultivated and escaped.

Gansu, ?Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hunan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan (cultivated), India, Kazakhstan (introduced), Kyrgyzstan (introduced), Mongolia, Myanmar (cultivated), Nepal, Russia (Far East, introduced), Sikkim (cultivated), Tajikistan (introduced); cultivated in Europe and North America].

1400-3900 m

Fl. Per.: May-August.

Wild or cultivated in mountainous regions; 400-3900 m.

Cultivated as a pseudo cereal in northern areas, Kashmir, particularly at higher elevation, up to 4500 m. This common buckwheat sometimes known as ‘Duckwheat’, is hardier than Fagopyrum esculentum, yields flour of poor quality. The flour is of darker colour and bitter taste.

Flowering Jun-Sep; fruiting Jul-Nov. Cultivated as grain crop and green manure, waif in waste places, disturbed ground, and field margins, rarely persisting; 0-1000; introduced; Alta., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que., Sask.; Maine, Mass., Mich., N.H., N.Y., Pa., R.I., Vt., W.Va.; Asia (China); introduced in Europe.

Polygonum tataricum L., Sp. Pl. 364. 1753.

Polygonum tataricum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 364. 1753.

Polygonum tataricum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 364. 1753

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 the buckwheats are not closely related to true cereals.

Tartary buckwheat is more bitter and contains more rutin than common buckwheat. It also contains other bioactive components such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, 2-hydroxybenzylamine and quercitrin.

Tartary buckwheat was domesticated in East Asia and is also cultivated in Europe and North America. While it is an unfamiliar food in the West, it is common in the Himalayan region today, as well as other regions in Southwest China such as Sichuan province.

Fagopyrum tataricum seeds from Mustang, Nepal.

The plant has been cultivated in many parts of the world; however, when found among other crops it is considered a weed.

A bowl of Fagopyrum tataricum seeds