Padi

Padi (Oriza Sativa)

Oryza sativa, rice, is a genus of perennial grass in the Poaceae (grass family) that originated in India, Thailand, and southern China, was domesticated and diversified in ancient times, and is now cultivated in wet tropical, semi-tropical, and warm temperate areas around the world for the production of its cereal grain. Rice is one of the two most important cereal crops world for human consumption; the other is wheat, Triticum species. (Corn, Zea mays, is produced in larger amounts, but a sizable portion of it is used for livestock feed and making ethanol for biofuel). Rice is cultivated on an estimated 3% of the world’s agricultural land, and serves as a primary source of calories for over half the world’s population. Rice has also been important as a model system in plant biology, and is the first plant species for which the genome has been fully mapped.

The name “wild rice” may refer to any of the lesser- or non-cultivated species of Oryza, but is generally used to refer to North American species in the genus Zizania.

Oryza sativa is generally an annual grass, although some varieties are perennial. Plants typically grow in a tuft (clump) of upright culms (stems) up to 2 m or more tall, with long, flat leaf blades. The flowers grow on broad, open terminal panicles (branched clusters). The oblong spikelets, which each contain a single flower (that develops into a single kernel of grain), are sparse along the stem rather than forming dense clusters. The harvested kernel, known as a rice paddy, is enveloped in a hull or husk that is removed during milling.