buckwheat pine n MI ?obs Cf buckwheat cedar n, cabbage pine n
A pine tree with limbs nearly to the ground and a sharply tapering trunk.
1865 in 1959 MI Hist. 43.401, There was a “good deal of double or thribble pine or ‘Buckwheat Pine,’ the trees taper rapidly, knots show from the ground.” 1883 Cultivator & Country Gentleman 48.597MI, In ordinary pine, comparatively free from limbs, the top end of a 12-foot log is about two inches smaller than the butt. In short, limby or “buckwheat” pine, there are often two or three times this difference. 1888 MI State Bd. Ag. Annual Rept. 27.79, The lumberman. . . applies the term “buckwheat pine” to a thrifty, usually young tree of white pine which has a large, low top. It is of no value for lumber or timber. Occasionally some call a tree of Pinus Banksiana, “buckwheat pine” if it has the shape above described. 1921 Dodge Misc. Papers Botany MI 131, Large specimens [of Pinus strobus] free from limbs and containing several logs of 16 feet each are called by land cruisers “sap pine”, and specimens with limbs on the body nearly to ground, “buckwheat pine”. . . A tree [of Pinus resinosa] with a long body free from limbs, containing several logs of 16 feet each, called “yellow pine” by land cruisers; one with limbs nearly to the ground, “buckwheat pine”.