Description: An annual grass cultivated extensively for its edible grain. It has slender stems, long narrow leaves and terminal panicles.

Identification: Grass habit; hollow culms; narrow leaves; branched grain-bearing panicle.

Habitat & distribution: Cultivated widely in tropical and subtropical regions, especially in wet agricultural fields.

Uses / importance: One of the world’s major staple food crops. Rice straw is also used as livestock feed, bedding and other agricultural products.

Taxonomy:
Kingdom – Plantae
Clade – Angiosperms
Clade – Monocots
Order – Poales
Family – Poaceae
Genus – Oryza
Species – O. sativa

Sources: Kew POWO; FAO; agricultural literature.