Wild rice, Zizania L., includes a couple of species respectively found or
reported in Alabama,
annual wildrice, Zizaniaaquatica L., in the coastal counties, and northern wildrice, Z.palustris L., which is common
much further north where it is the state grain of Minnesota. The later is the one primarily grown for grain
although it is still a minor crop due to several factors typically no longer
found in domesticated grains.Most
importantly is that the seed head shatters making modern harvest methods
relatively inefficient, beside the lack of simultaneous ripening of heads
produced from tillers, resulting in higher production cost thus relegating wild
rice to gourmet health food status.Another
factor is seed dormancy requiring the seed to be at the bottom of a frozen pond
for about three months.A minor factor is
the straw to grain ratio, which contributes to lodging if the grain increases
without also decreasing the straw such as in a dwarf size.So far cultivars have been developed or
observed that have reduce shattering, less dormancy, and/or reduced tendency to
lodge due to being shorter.The
shattering of the head was exploited in the original harvest method where a
canoe was paddled through natural stands and the stalks were beaten just hard
enough to dislodge the grain into the canoe while any grain missing the canoe
planted the next crop.Interestingly the Greek term for tares
used in the Bible is zizanion.
