| Home | > | List of cultivated families | > | Poaceae | > | Oryza | > | sativa |
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| Description: | An annual or rarely short-lived perennial of variable habit. Culms 45-180 cm. tall, 3-many-noded (up to 20), 6-8 mm. in diam., erect or ascending from a geniculate base, terete, hollow, smooth, glabrous. Leaf-sheath coarsely striate, tight when young, later somewhat loose, often somewhat spongy, green or sometimes tinged with brown or purple, smooth, glabrous; the lowest usually longer, the upper shorter than the internodes. Ligule (1·25)1·5-3 cm. long, triangular, acute, entire or split, usually glabrous, sometimes tinged with pink, purple or brown in some varieties or strains. Leaf-laminae 12-65 x 0·4 — 1·75 cm., linear, tapering to an acute point, bright green to glaucous, rather flaccid, glabrous or puberulous, rarely scattered with short hairs, smooth on the lower, asperulous on the upper surface; midrib usually distinct. Panicle up to 50 cm. long, erect, curved or drooping, very variable in density; rhachis obtusely angular, smooth, glabrous or scattered hairy; branches solitary or clustered, forming a variable angle with the rhachis (from being nearly erect to spreading), angular, scabrous. Pedicels up to 4 mm. long, stout, scabrous. Spikelets 8-11 x 2·5-3·5 mm., not deciduous (the articulation to the pedicel is usually completely solidified but there are, however, some strains in which the spikelets fall off at maturity), obliquely attached to the pedicel, very variable in shape, asymmetrically oblong to elliptic-oblong in lateral view. Glumes (the narrow rim at the base of the spikelet) varying in colour from pale white to yellow, purple or black. Sterile lemmas about equal in shape and size, usually 2-3 mm. long (very rarely up to 1/2 the length of the spikelet in certain forms “winged varieties”), lanceolate, acute, glossy. Fertile lemma as described for O. barthii, sometimes coloured, usually awnless, sometimes awned (the awn often purple-pink, more rarely colourless). Paleas as described for O. barthii. Sexual organs and caryopsis similar to those of O. barthii. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | sativa: cultivated, not wild |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | tropics and subtropics throughout the world |
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| Insects associated with this species: | Cnaphalocrocis trapezalis (Larval foodplant) Paraponyx fluctuosalis (Larval foodplant) Mocis proverai (Larval food plant) Eublemma anachoresis (Larval food plant) Bicyclus condamini (Larval food plant) Maruca vitrata (Larval food plant) Ariathisa abyssinia (Larval food plant) Grammodes bifasciata (Larval foodplant) |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 68. Launert, E. (1971). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(1) Pages 33 - 36. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 107. |
| Home | > | List of cultivated families | > | Poaceae | > | Oryza | > | sativa |