WILD BUCKWHEAT

WHAT'S THAT WEED? SERIES

Wild buckwheat is sometimes called black bindweed and is OFTEN CONFUSED with field bindweed. Both have arrow-shaped leaves and vines that grow along the ground and twist around other plants.  

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO?

WILD BUCKWHEAT (Annual)

• Likes partial shade. 
• Pointier leaf tips. 
• Spreads by seed.
• Very small, greenish flowers with no petals.
• Thin, short, black roots. 
• Easy to pull the roots. 

FIELD BINDWEED (Perennial)

• Likes sun.
• Rounder leaf tips.  
• Spreads by seeds and roots.
• Small, white ‘morning glory’ flowers.
• Very long, white roots. 
• Difficult to pull the roots. 

HOW TO CONTROL WILD BUCKWHEAT? 

• It’s much easier to manage than field bindweed.
• Seedlings are easy to kill by hoeing or covering with mulch. 
• Can kill long vines by cutting the stem at the base of the plant. 
• Don’t let it flower and go to seed — if it does there will be many, many new seedlings in the spring. 

Sources:
Hartzler, B. and Vittetoe, R. Wild Buckwheat. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/wild-buckwheat

Royer, F. and Dickinson, R. Weeds of Canada and the Northern United States, 1999.

Image: Langton Alicia, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.