Buckwheat

Fagopyrum (buckwheat) is a large genus of Polygonaceae Gross (1913) first classified the species of the Polygonaceae native to Asia including buckwheat . Steward (1930) later classified ten buckwheat species in the Polygonaceae native to Asia . Among them, F.suffruticosum Schm. is native to Sakhalin and the rest are all native to southwest China. Miyabe and Miyake (1915) suggested that F.suffruticosum is the same species as F.tataricum in their book (Flora of Sakhalin). Ohnishi’s research group collected cultivated and wild buckwheat resources native to China and the Himalaya region beginning in 1988 and suggested one big-achene species (F.homotropicum Ohnishi = F.esculentum var. homotropicum) and five new small-achene species (F.callianthum Ohnishi, F.pleioramosum Ohnishi, F.capillatum Ohnishi, F.rubifolium Ohsako et Ohnishi, F.macrocarpum Ohsako et Ohnishi). Chen (1999) suggested three new big-achene species, tetraploid annual F.zuogongense Q.F. Chen, diploid perennial F.megaspartanium Q.F. Chen and F.pilus Q.F. Chen . Krotov (1973) made a new annual species (F.giganteum) by crossing the tartary buckwheat and F.cymosum complex. Due to the similarity in morphology, the three large-achene perennial buckwheat species are normally called the F.cymosum complex