Buckwheat
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a glabrous, herbaceous annual plant with erect stems, alternate with hastate or cordate leaves. The stipules are united as a sheath (ochrea) around the stem at the nodes. The greenish white flowers occur as terminal or axial panicles, and have eight stamens and 3-parted styles, which form 3-angled browncolored seeds from which buckwheat flour is made. Commonly grown as a cover crop to be plowed under for soil enrichment, it has escaped in many areas to become a weed of waste places.
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Both the green and dried plant contain the pigment fago-pyrin, which, when ingested in sufficient quantities and then exposed to sunlight, is capable of producing primary photosensitization in all domestic livestock.
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