Agriophyllum squarrosum Seeds | Sandrice
LATIN NAME: Agriophyllum squarrosum
COMMON NAME: Sandrice, Mongolian Sandrice
Plant Profile
Sandrice is a bristly annual of the amaranth family, native to the moving dunes of Mongolia, northern China and Central Asia, where it grows on sand that shifts several metres in a season. It reaches twenty to eighty centimetres, with narrow, spine-tipped leaves and short, dense spikes of small green flowers that ripen into papery, winged fruits.
Its roots run deeper than the plant is tall, and the stem base is buried and uncovered by blowing sand without harm. The whole plant is grey-green and harsh to the touch, and by late summer the dunes carry a scatter of pale, spiny skeletons that have shed their seed and dried where they stood. The dead stems then trap sand themselves, which is part of how a dune begins to settle.
Science & Biotechnology
Sandrice germinates within two days of a summer rain, but only from seed lying in the top centimetre of sand. Buried any deeper it stays dormant, sometimes for years. That shallow requirement suits a surface which is either moving or drying within hours, and it is why the plant appears in flushes after storms rather than as a continuous cover.
The species is being developed as a dryland crop. Its seed is about twenty per cent protein, high in unsaturated oil and gluten-free, and it has been harvested as a famine grain across the Gobi for centuries. Genome work published since 2019 has begun to identify the genes behind its salt and drought tolerance, and trials in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia have asked whether a wild harvest can be turned into a sown crop with a predictable yield.
Uses & Benefits
The seed, sold as sand rice or sha mi, is gathered in autumn by beating the ripe plants over a cloth. It is winnowed, lightly roasted, and boiled as a porridge or ground and mixed with wheat flour for noodles. On its own the flour is dark and faintly bitter, and it is usually cut with something milder.
The plant also works as a nurse for sand fixation. It holds the surface for a season or two while slower shrubs such as Caragana and Artemisia get away, and it is sown in straw checkerboard plantings on the edges of the Tengger and the Mu Us. In autumn the dried plants are cut for fodder, though the spines make them awkward to handle and they are chopped before they are fed.
Growing from Seed
Sow in late spring once the soil has reached 20 °C, and press the seed into the surface of sharp sand instead of covering it. Water once, heavily, then let the surface dry between wettings; constant damp rots the seed, and the plant wants the opposite of the treatment a vegetable seedling gets.
When germination comes it takes about three days. The plant resents transplanting at any size, so sow where it is to stand: a dry sandy bed, a gravel garden, or a large pot of pure grit. Give it no feed and no staking, and leave the last stems standing through winter so that the seed sheds where it can grow. Dry seed keeps for four or five years.
Our Take
A dune pioneer with a serious case for being a future grain. Grow it for the shape, the spines and the story, in the sharpest sand you have.
Related Reading
If Sandrice appeals to you, these related plants are worth a look: