Water rice

This article describes the genus water rice ( Zizania ). For the morphological term see water rice (plant morphology ) .

Wild rice is a redirect to this article. For other meanings, see wild rice (disambiguation) .

Water rice
Manchurian water rice ( Zizania latifolia )
Systematics
Commelinids Order : Sweet grass (Poales) Family : Sweet grasses (Poaceae) Subfamily : Ehrhartoideae Tribe : Oryzeae Genre : Water rice
Scientific name
Zizania
L.

The water rice ( Zizania ) is a genus of plants within the sweet grass family (Poaceae). The four or so species are common in North America and East Asia. The plants often grow on the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. The fruits of some species are used like grains of rice.

Cultivated forms of the species Zizania palustris are commercially available under the names wild rice , Indian rice or Canadian rice . The common name "wild rice" is not a botanical name. In particular, Zizania species are not wild forms of rice ( Oryza sativa ). The genus Zizania (water rice) is to be distinguished from the genus Oryza (rice), even if both belong to the same tribe Oryzeae .

description

Detail of an inflorescence with male flowers of Zizania aquatica

Fruits of Zizania palustris that darken when drying

Vegetative characteristics

Zizania species are annual or perennial herbaceous plants . They are aquatic and marsh plants ( hydro- and helophytes ). The hollow stalks reach heights between 1 and 3 meters.

The plants form both submerged and emersed leaves . The simple leaf blades have no ears and are 5 to 30 centimeters wide. The unfringed ligule are between 3 and 11 millimeters long.

Generative characteristics

Zizania species are monoecious and female (proterogyn). The terminal, panicle inflorescences are relatively large. All spikelets are unisexual. The spikelets with male, overhanging flowers are on the lower panicle branches and those with ascending, female flowers are on the upper panicle branches. The lemmas of the male flowers are pointed, awned or short awned and five-nerved, the palea are three- nerved . The male flowers have six free stamens . The three- to five-veined lemmas of the female flowers are awned and the awns are as long or much longer than the lemmas. The palea are keeled and two-veined. The bald ovaries have two scars . The partial inflorescences have no glumes .

The 1 to 2 centimeters long, almost needle-shaped caryopses are initially green and turn dark brown to black as they dry.

Systematics and distribution

The genus Zizania was established by Carl von Linné . The generic name Zizania is derived from the Greek word zizánion for "growing in water" and refers to the place of growth. The genus belongs to the tribe Oryzeae in the subfamily Ehrhartoideae within the family Poaceae .

The genus Zizania includes four species:

• Zizania aquatica L. - annual, in North America
• Zizania latifolia (Griseb.) Turcz. ex Stapf , "Manchurian water rice" - perennial, in East Asia
• Zizania palustris L. - annual, in North America
• Zizania Texana Hitchc. - perennial, in North America

Zizania palustris has only been considered a separate species since the 1980s. It was previously considered a variety of Zizania aquatica . The synonym Zizania aquatica var. Angustifolia refers to this earlier classification .

The North American species are often grouped under the name wild rice . They are common as follows:

• Zizania aquatica inhabits the temperate east and southeast of the USA along the Atlantic coast from the Saint Lawrence River via Florida to Louisiana .
• Zizania palustris is much more widespread: in a boreal to temperate area of Canada as well as in the north and midwest of the USA, from the Pacific coast to the Great Lakes region .
• Zizania texana is endemic to a small region of Texas on the San Marcos River .

use

North American species

Water rice harvest by Indian women (illustration, 1853)

In Canada, for example, the Anishinabe harvest the water rice in the traditional way from canoe. It is used for self-sufficiency , but is also one of the tribe's most important sources of income today.

While Zizania texana has no meaning as a food for humans, the fruits of Zizania aquatica and Zizania palustris can be used like grain , with Zizania palustris being especially important because of the larger fruits. Especially for the Chippewa - Indians of North America played a decisive role in paddy rice in the diet. The water rice is still harvested today. The harvest takes place from the water in late summer. By gently tapping two thuja sticks on the panicles hanging in the canoe, the fruits fall onto the canoe base and are collected. When the panicles snap back, the remaining fruits fall back into the water as seeds.

In the meantime the fruits are also imported to Europe and traded as "wild rice" or "Indian rice". This "rice" is considered a delicacy in America and Europe because of its nutty taste. In the past, it was significantly more expensive than other grains due to the difficult harvesting methods in natural stocks.

Hybrid varieties are now being grown extensively in North America and efforts are underway to further increase the harvest yield by cultivating forms with non-falling fruits. However, the Chippewa fear that their traditional harvest economy will suffer; one of the tribe's few lucrative incomes.

Manchurian water rice

Manchurian water rice was grown in northern China as early as the 10th century. It does not use the fruits, but rather the lower parts of the stalk, which have become fleshy and thickened by the Ustilago esculenta smut fungus . They are consumed as vegetables ("water bamboo").

literature

• E. Bayer: Important and interesting crops from the grass family. In: Bavarian Academy of Sciences (editor): Grasses and grasslands: Biology - Use - Development , round table on October 10, 2005, Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich ISSN  0938-5851 , ISBN 3-89937-070-8 .

Web links

Commons : Water Rice ( Zizania )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The genus Zizania by Leslie Watson, Michael John Dallwitz , Terry Macfarlane: The Families of Flowering Plants, 2017, English
• James A. Duke (1983): Zizania aquatica L. in Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished , accessed July 20, 2007
• EA Oelke, TM Teynor, PR Carter, JA Percich, DM Noetzel, PR Bloom, RA Porter, CE Schertz, JJ Boedicker, EI Fuller: Wild Rice , 1997, accessed July 20, 2007
• Ervin A. Oelke: Wild Rice: Domestication of a Native North American Genus , 1993, accessed July 20, 2007

Individual evidence

1. ^ Zizania latifolia in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
2. ↑ Plant profile and distribution map of Zazania aquatica L. according to USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service .
3. ↑ Plant profile and distribution map of Zazania palustris according to USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service .
4. ↑ Plant profile and distribution map of Zazania texana according to USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service .
5. ↑ Bertram Verhaag (director) Claus Biegert : The thunderbird woman. Winona LaDuke. DENKmal Filmgesellschaft, Munich 2003.