The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as Fagopyrum tataricum, a domesticated food plant raised in Asia.

Buckwheat is considered a pseudocereal, because its seeds' high starch content allows them to be used in cooking like a cereal.

[6]: 94 Fagopyrum esculentum is native to south-central China and Tibet,[7] and has been introduced into suitable climates across Eurasia, Africa and the Americas.

F. homotropicum is interfertile with F. esculentum and the wild forms have a common distribution, in Yunnan, a southwestern province of China.

In India, buckwheat flour is known as kuttu ka atta and has long been culturally associated with many festivals like Shivratri, Navaratri and Janmashtami.

In hot climates buckwheat can be grown only by sowing late in the season, so that it blooms in cooler weather.

[13] The buckwheat plant has a branching root system with a primary taproot that reaches deeply into moist soil.

[16] Buckwheat branches freely, as opposed to tillering or producing suckers, enabling more complete adaption to its environment than other cereal crops.

[19] F. esculentum is often studied and used as a pollen and nectar source to increase natural predator numbers to control crop pests.

[23] English-Loeb et al. 2003 found that it does sustain greater numbers of Anagrus parasitoids on Erythroneura leafhoppers,[23] and Balzan and Wäckers 2013 found the same for Necremnus artynes and Ferracini et al. 2012 for Necremnus tutae on Tuta absoluta, and thereby act as pest controls in tomato, potato, and to a lesser degree other Solanaceous and non-Solanaceous horticulturals.

[25] Kalinova and Moudry 2003 found that further companion planting with other flowers at the wrong time of year may actually cause F. esculentum to be killed by frosts it would have otherwise survived, and Colley and Luna 2000 found that it may delay its flowering to not coincide with the natural enemy it was planted to feed.

[34] With a 100-gram serving of dry buckwheat providing 1,440 kilojoules (343 kilocalories) of food energy, or 380 kJ (92 kcal) cooked, buckwheat is a rich source (20% or more of the Daily Value, DV) of protein, dietary fiber, four B vitamins (riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, Vitamin B6) and several dietary minerals, with content especially high (47 to 65% DV) in niacin, magnesium, manganese and phosphorus (table).

[40] Symptoms of fagopyrism in humans may include skin inflammation in sunlight-exposed areas, cold sensitivity, and tingling or numbness in the hands.

Groats were the most widely used form of buckwheat worldwide during the 20th century, eaten primarily in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, called grechka (Greek [grain]) in Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian languages.

Buckwheat noodles have been eaten in Tibet and northern China for centuries, where the growing season is too short to raise wheat.

Buckwheat noodles play a major role in the cuisines of Japan (soba)[42] and Korea (naengmyeon, makguksu and memil guksu).

The difficulty of making noodles from flour with no gluten has resulted in a traditional art developed around their manufacture by hand.

They are known as buckwheat blini in Russia, galettes bretonnes in France, ployes in Acadia, poffertjes in the Netherlands, boûketes in the Wallonia region of Belgium, kuttu ki puri in India and kachhyamba in Nepal.

), fasting people in northern states of India eat foods made of buckwheat flour.

While strict Hindus do not even drink water during their fast, others give up cereals and salt and instead eat non-cereal foods such as buckwheat (kuttu).

Although it is not an actual cereal (being a pseudocereal), buckwheat can be used in the same way as barley to produce a malt that can form the basis of a mash that will brew a beer without gliadin or hordein (together gluten) and therefore can be suitable for coeliacs or others sensitive to certain glycoproteins.

[citation needed] Buckwheat hulls are used as filling for a variety of upholstered goods, including pillows.