page_title: Buckwheat
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Buckwheat / History
caption_attribution_description: Common English name: buckwheat; Name in Kanji: 蕎麦; English translation of Kanji: pointed wheat; Von Siebold's Latin name: polygonum fagopyrum; Modern Kanji: 蕎麦; Modern Katakana: ソ・バ; Family: Polygonaceae; Species: Fagopyrum&#160;esculentum&#160;MoenchFagopyrum&#160;esculentum&#160;Moench
context_page_description: Buckwheat, or common buckwheat, is a plant cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is also used for a number of other species. A related and bitterer species, Fagopyrum tataricum, is a domesticated food plant raised in Asia. Despite the name, buckwheat is not 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.
context_section_description: The wild ancestor of common buckwheat is F. esculentum ssp. ancestrale. F. homotropicum is interfertile with F. esculentum and the wild forms have a common distribution, in Yunnan, a southwestern province of China. The wild ancestor of tartary buckwheat is F. tataricum ssp. potanini.
  Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in inland Southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BCE, and from there spread to Central Asia and Tibet, and then to the Middle East and Europe. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China.
  The oldest remains found in China so far date to circa 2600 BCE, while buckwheat pollen found in Japan dates from as early as 4000 BCE. It is the world's highest-elevation domesticate, being cultivated in Yunnan on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau or on the plateau itself. Buckwheat was one of the earliest crops introduced by Europeans to North America. Dispersal around the globe was complete by 2006, when a variety developed in Canada was widely planted in China. In India, buckwheat flour is known as kuttu ka atta and is culturally associated with the Navaratri festival. On the day of this festival, food items made only from buckwheat are consumed.
caption: Buckwheat, illustration from the Japanese agricultural encyclopedia Seikei Zusetsu (1804)