Plant · P-701

Buckwheat

Fagopyrum esculentum

Buckwheat is a fast-growing cover crop that does four jobs in one 70 to 90 day window: it smothers weeds under a fast-closing canopy, pulls phosphorus out of forms other crops cannot reach, feeds bees and beneficial insects for weeks on end, and still leaves behind a gluten-free grain. Despite the name it is not a grass at all but a relative of knotweed, and its triangular seed is ground into flour or cooked whole like rice. The green foliage carries compounds that make light-coated grazing animals sunburn badly if they eat too much of it and then stand in strong sunlight.