Buckwheat

Buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, a member of the knot-grass order (Polygonaceae), derives both its English and its Latin name from the resemblance of its small three-sided farinaceous fruit to a miniature beech-mast. It is a branched annual herb, seldom more than two feet high, native to Central Asia, but long extensively cultivated and often naturalised in Europe and the United States. Though far less nutritious than wheat, it is used for human food, its flour being made into thin cakes; but in England it is only grown to a small extent as food for pheasants.