| Oryza barthii | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Genus: | Oryza |
| Species: | O. barthii |
| Binomial name | |
| Oryza barthii | |
 | |
| The range of Oryza barthii. | |
| Synonyms [2] | |
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Oryza barthii, also called Barth's rice, [3] wild rice, [4] or African wild rice, [5] is a grass in the rice genus Oryza . It is an annual, erect to semierect grass. It has leaves with a short ligule (<13 millimetres (33⁄64 in)), and panicles that are compact to open, rarely having secondary branching. The inflorescence structure are large spikelets, 7.7–12.3 millimetres (39⁄128–31⁄64 in) long and 2.3–3.5 millimetres (23⁄256–35⁄256 in) wide, with strong awns (up to 20 centimetres (8 in) long), usually red. The inflorescences have anthers 1.5–3 millimetres (15⁄256–15⁄128 in) long.
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This wild rice grows in sub-Saharan Africa, and is found in mopane or savanna woodland, savanna or fadama. O. barthii grows in deep water, seasonally flooded land, stagnant water, and slowly flowing water or pools; it prefers clay or black cotton soils (vertisol), and is found in open habitats. [6] It is the progenitor of cultivated Oryza glaberrima , African rice. [7] [8]
It has nodal roots hosting nitrogen fixing, photosynthetic strains of Bradyrhizobium . [9]
The sequenced genome of O. barthii was published in 2014. [10] This species is one of the AA species, the domesticated rices and their wild relatives. [8]
