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Zizania

Zizania aquatica
Photo by Ann Murray posted at www.d.umn.edu

Zizania aquatica inflorescence
Photo by Will Cook posted at carolinanature.com

Zizania aquatica leaves and inflorescence
Modified from image posted at facultystaff_richmond.edu

Zizania aquatica fruits
Modified from image posted at facultystaff_richmond.edu

Zizania aquatica
Image posted at dcnr.state.al.us

Zizania aquatica
Modified from photo by M. Hassler posted at botanik.uni-karlsruhe.de

Traditional Native American way of harvesting wild rice, beating grains (right image) with a stick into a canoe (left image). Modified from images posted at brainready.com (left image) and static-p4.fotolia.com (right image). "Wild rice (Zizania aquatica or Zizania palustris), or manomin, a staple food for Minnesota’s Indians for centuries, was adopted as the official state grain in 1977.  It is an aquatic grass not related to common rice.  Early in the summer, the plants bloom with tiny maroon and gold flowers, and by late summer, their seeds mature into dark brown kernels.  Domestic cultivation and combine harvesting of wild rice are relatively recent developments; wild rice is commercially produced as a field crop on about 20,000 acres in Minnesota.  For many years, basically all of the wild rice produced in the world came from Minnesota, and most still does.  Wild rice often is harvested from lakes in a traditional way, from canoes; people interested in harvesting wild rice in Minnesota must purchase a wild ricing license, similar to a fishing or hunting license.  Wild rice grows naturally in the shallow waters of lakes in central and northern Minnesota." (Quoted from http://www.sos.state.mn.us/student/grain.html.)

However, commercially-grown wild rice is becoming popular, and is less expensive to produce than the traditional labor-intensive harvesting show above.

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