Tartary Buckwheat

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Tartar Buckwheat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Caryophyllales Family: Polygonaceae Genus: Fagopyrum Species: F. tataricum
Binomial name
Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn.

Tartar Buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is a domesticated food plant in the genus Fagopyrum (sometimes merged into the genus Polygonum) in the family Polygonaceae. With its congener 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 closely related to true wheat. Tartar Buckwheat has a more bitter taste, but contains more rutin than common buckwheat.

Tartar buckwheat was domesticated in east Asia. While it is unfamiliar to the West, it is still eaten in the Himalayan region today.

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).

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.

Physical Characteristics Annual growing to 0.8m. . It is in flower from July to September. The flowers are monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant) and are pollinated by Bees and flies. We rate it 3 out of 5 for usefulness.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very acid soil. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations Cultivated Beds. Cultivar 'Madawaska': Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses Leaves; Oil; Seed. Leaves - raw or cooked[183]. Acceptable raw when added in small quantities to mixed chopped salads, otherwise the leaves are much better cooked[K]. They are rich in rutin.

Seed - cooked as a cereal[2, 46, 100, 105].The seed can also be sprouted and used in salads, or ground into a powder and used as a cereal[183].

An edible oil is obtained from the seed[177, 183].

Medicinal Uses Disclaimer Astringent.

The bark is astringent[240].

Other Uses None known Cultivation details A very easily grown plant, it prefers dry sandy soils but succeeds in most conditions including poor, heavy or acid soils[160] and even sub-soils. Prefers a cool moist climate, also succeeds in dry and arid regions.

Tartarian buckwheat is hardier and more resistant to cold than the more commonly grown buckwheat, F. esculentum, though it does not yield so highly[132].

Occasionally cultivated for its edible seed in Europe and the Himalayas[50, 51], there is at least one named variety[183]. 'Madawaska' is more cold hardy and drought tolerant than the type[183]. Propagation Seed - sow from the middle of spring to early summer in situ. The seed usually germinates in 5 days[115]. The earlier sowings are for a seed or leaf crop whilst the later sowings are used mainly for leaf crops or green manure.