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Plant · P-683
Wild Rice
Zizania aquatica
Wild Rice is an aquatic annual grass that grows standing in fresh water, its long black grain traditionally harvested by bending the seed heads over a canoe and knocking the ripe kernels loose across several passes. Waterfowl are the other reason to grow it - geese, ducks, rails and blackbirds all take the grain, and dense stands supply nesting cover as well as food. The seed cannot be dried for storage; it has to be kept wet and cold or it loses viability within weeks, and the grain is vulnerable to a fungus that turns infected kernels purple or pink and makes them dangerous to eat.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 5.6–8.5
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 8–11.5 ft
- Mature spread
- 6–10 in
- Plant spacing
- 15–18 in
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
American Lotus
Nelumbo lutea
American lotus yields three separate harvests from one plant: a rhizome that bakes sweet and mealy like sweet potato and stores for months…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
Blue Flag Iris
Iris versicolor
Blue Flag Iris is a rhizomatous perennial of marshes, pond margins and wet meadows, grown for its blue to violet flowers from May into August…
Aquatic · USDA 3–9
Bulrush
Schoenoplectus acutus
Bulrush is a tall wetland sedge that forms dense rhizome colonies along pond margins, lake edges and slow streams, growing several feet tall…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Cattail
Typha latifolia
Cattail is a tall wetland perennial that colonizes the shallow margins of ponds, ditches and marshes, forming dense stands of sword-like…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera
Sacred lotus grows from a rhizome buried in pond mud, sending up round leaves well above the waterline and flowers that open for only a few…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
Mosquito Fern
Azolla filiculoides
Water Fern is a tiny free-floating fern that carries its own built-in nitrogen fixer, a cyanobacterium living in a pocket inside every leaf,…
Aquatic · USDA 7–10
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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