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.
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]
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]
