Pollen and macrofossils attributable to Fagopyrum in western Eurasia prior to the Late Medieval: An intercontinental mystery

Buckwheat: a crop from outside the major Chinese domestication centres? A review of the archaeobotanical, palynological and genetic evidence

“…It has been claimed that the pollen of a number of African genera of Polygonaceae ( Oxygonum, Antigon and Afrobrunnichia ) is morphologically similar to that of Fagopyrum (de Klerk et al 2015 ), but the basis of the claim is unclear and African genera are in any case unlikely to be relevant to the topic of this paper. Chinese pollen morphology studies show that Fagopyrum pollen has surface sculpture distinguishing it from other genera, which allows confident genus level identification in sedimentary pollen diagrams (Wang et al 1995 ).…”

“…Fagopyrum pollen is invariably encountered in low numbers, on account of its being entomophilous or self-pollinated, with poor production and limited dispersal capacities on account of the large pollen grain size, as well as the coarse sculpture of the exine (Miras 2009 ; Pidek 2009 ; de Klerk et al 2015 ). The levels of Fagopyrum pollen in surface samples, both in situ and near contemporary buckwheat fields are markedly low (Miras 2009 ; Pidek 2009 ; de Klerk et al 2015 ). We therefore tentatively suggest that a high incidence of buckwheat pollen might be explained by crop processing in the vicinity.…”

“…Finally, F. esculentum subsequently became a widespread crop in the Old World northern hemisphere, but the chronology of this globalization is uncertain (Jones et al 2011 ; Boivin et al 2012 ). A recent review of the European palynological and macrobotanical data (de Klerk et al 2015 ) has highlighted this uncertainty. Here we undertake a comparable review of the data set for China.…”

Neolithic land use in the northern Boreal zone: high-resolution multiproxy analyses from Lake Huhdasjärvi, south-eastern Finland

“…It has large dimorphic pollen grains (60 × 35 μm in brevistyled and 45 × 24 μm in longistyled flowers) (Erdtman et al 1961). Although pollen grains originating from Fagopyrum esculentum are occasionally found in sediments, they are always rare in the pollen rain (de Klerk et al 2015).…”

Palaeo-ecological and archaeological analysis of two Dutch Celtic fields (Zeijen-Noordse Veld and Wekerom-Lunteren): solving the puzzle of local Celtic field bank formation

“…The earliest indications of cultivation of Secale date from the Late Iron Age to Early Roman period at Noordbarge (100 cal bc-ad 100; van Zeist 1981) and Ede-Veldhuizen (about ad 100; van Zeist 1976), both not far from Zeijen and Wekerom. Pre-late medieval finds of Fagopyrum are also rare, but not uncommon, and it has been suggested that there has been small scale, but widespread cultivation from Roman times onwards (De Klerk et al 2015). On a large scale cultivation and consumption of Fagopyrum has occurred in the Netherlands since the 14th century (van Haaster 1997).…”