Nature Bulletin No. 352-A   October 4, 1969
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE SMARTWEED FAMILY

We will never forget a friend who, long before daylight on the first day 
of every November, routed us out of bed for a "Halloween breakfast" at 
his house -- stacks of buckwheat pancakes made with freshly ground 
flour just received from his kin in Pennsylvania, covered with gobs of 
butter and buckwheat honey, flanked with spicy pork sausages. That 
was a breakfast fit for a king. That stuck to your ribs.

Buckwheat, a member of the Smartweed Family, was cultivated in 
Asia and Europe for a thousand years before colonists brought it to 
America. Its name comes from the German word Buchweizen, 
meaning beech wheat, because the black triangular seeds resemble the 
nut from a beech tree. Grown less extensively now than in early days, 
about two-thirds of our crop comes from New York and Pennsylvania. 
It grows well on poor soil with little cultivation, and so rapidly that, in 
an emergency, it can be planted in midsummer and yet ripen before 
frost. A field of buckwheat, blanketed with its white blossoms, is a 
paradise for bees. Smartweeds, too, although the honey is lighter in 
color and not so strong, are the principal source of nectar in late 
summer and early fall. Other very important cultivated members of 
this family are Sugar Beets, Mangel-wurzels, Garden Beets, Swiss 
Chard and, believe it or not, Rhubarb!

The smartweeds and their relatives make up one of the larger plant 
families, totaling about 800 species. Of 50-odd kinds widespread in the 
United States, most can be found in the Chicago region, including Red 
Sorrel, Sour Dock and several other kinds of Dock. Most of them, 
however, bear the scientific name Polygonum, meaning "many knees", 
because their stems have swollen knots or joints and often make 
zigzag bends where the leaves are attached. This group includes the 
many kinds of smartweeds, the knotweeds; the Black Bindweed which, 
twining like the morning-glories, is such a pest in farmers' fields; and 
the Climbing False Buckwheat. The latter is a common vine in woods 
and thickets. It may reach 20 feet in length, its leaves are heart-
shaped, and in autumn the vines are loaded with black 3-angled seeds.

The Common Knotweed, or Goose Grass, is a sprawling branching 
plant with tiny oval leaves. It is seen most often in the packed earth of 
footpaths, lanes and barnyards; or in the cracks of sidewalks. Its little 
nutlike seeds were parched to make "pinole", eaten by the 
southwestern Indians. Virginia Knotweed, or Jumpseed, occurs in 
woodlands, forming waist-high thickets of crisscrossing wands. In 
autumn, hickers are often puzzled by the rattling bombardment of 
seeds when these switches are jostled. Each seed sits on a short stalk 
with a brittle joint and a core of compressed pith that, like a popgun, 
can shoot the seed as much as 10 feet when the hooked spines at its 
tips are touched.

The smartweeds are divided about equally between kinds which prefer 
well-drained uplands and those which, thriving in moist soils and 
swamps, rapidly cover exposed mud flats in late summer. Their 
blossoms vary in color from pale pink or purple to bright scarlet. The 
Lady's Thumb Smartweed often covers stubble fields after a grain crop 
is harvested. Its leaves, marked with a dark heart-shaped "V", will 
burn your tongue and bring tears to your eyes when chewed. The 
plentiful plump seeds of smartweeds and knotweeds furnish from a 
tenth to a quarter of the food for wild ducks, upland game birds and 
many songbirds.

They are strictly for the birds and the bees.