Zizania palustris Seeds | Wild Rice

Ripe wild rice panicles bending over shallow water in late summer — Wild Rice (*Zizania palustris*): Poaceae, shallow lakes of north-central North America.

LATIN NAME: Zizania palustris

COMMON NAME: Wild Rice

Plant Profile

Wild rice is an annual aquatic grass of shallow lakes and slow rivers, growing two to three metres tall with broad, floating leaves in its early stage and a loose panicle of spikelets at the top. The grain that follows is long, dark and nutty, and it shatters from the stem as it ripens, which is why it has always been harvested by knocking it into a canoe. It is not rice at all, and it is one of the few cereals domesticated in North America. The stems rise and fall with the water, and a stand in flower looks like a field of grass that has learned to swim.

Science & Biotechnology

Zizania palustris is an obligate wetland annual with a reproductive quirk: the seed is deeply dormant at shedding, needs cold, wet conditions to after-ripen, and dies if it dries out. That single trait shapes everything about its conservation and its cultivation, since seed cannot be stored in a packet. It is also largely wind-pollinated and self-incompatible, and stands in the Great Lakes region show clear genetic structure between lakes. The species has been bred into shatter-resistant cultivars for paddies in Minnesota and California, and those cultivars now supply most of the commercial crop. Wild stands and cultivated stands are genetically distinct, which matters for restoration.

Uses & Benefits

The grain is a food of real quality, high in protein and low in fat, with a chewy texture and a nutty flavour, and it is sacred to the Ojibwe and other Great Lakes peoples, for whom the harvest is a calendar event and a legal right. Commercially it is grown in flooded paddies as well as gathered from lakes. The stems provide cover for waterfowl and fish, and the plant is used in wetland restoration. It is not a garden vegetable in any ordinary sense, but it is one of the most beautiful plants a pond can hold, and a stand of it will bring blackbirds and herons.

Growing from Seed

The seed must never dry out. Keep it in water at two to four degrees for three to four months, changing the water weekly, then sow into wet mud at the edge of a pond or in a bucket of soil and water. Keep the water shallow at first, two to five centimetres, and deepen as the plant grows. It needs full sun and still water, and it will not tolerate a crowded margin. In a garden, a lined tub is enough. The plant is annual, so let a few panicles ripen and shatter into the mud for the next year, and do not clean the bottom out in autumn.

Our Take

A grain that has to be grown in water and cannot be kept in a packet, which is exactly why it tastes like nothing else. It is also the most elegant thing a pond can carry.

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