keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

1102 POACEAE/ZIZANIA
Popcorns have a core of soft, relatively moist endosperm surrounded by hard endosperm. The
grains ‘pop’ when heat causes the moisture of the inner endosperm to vaporize.” Cultivars with
colored grains (e.g., blue corn) were used ritually by Native Americans. The leaves of CORN
sometimes have lesions caused by the rust fungus Puccinia sorghi Schwein. (J. Hennen, pers.
comm.). Animals turned into cornfields after harvest sometimes develop “cornstalk disease,”
possibly as a result of cyanide or (more likely) nitrate toxicity (Burrows & Tyrl 2001). � I
ZIZANIA L. WILD RICE
Aquatic, monoecious, nearly glabrous annuals or perennials; culms erect or long-streaming in
flowing water, unbranched; leaves basal and cauline; ligule a membrane, ca. as long as width of
leaf blade; leaf blades flat; inflorescence a panicle, with staminate spikelets on lower branches
and pistillate on upper; spikelets with a single floret, disarticulating below the lemma; glumes
absent; staminate and pistillate spikelets very different in appearance; staminate spikelets pendulous,
with lemma awnless or nearly so; stamens 6; pistillate spikelets appressed, with lemma
long-awned.
AA C3 genus of 4 species, 3 in North America (primarily eastern) and 1 in e Asia (Terrell et al.
1997; Terrell ined.); this classic disjunct distribution pattern is discussed under the genus
Brachyelytrum (Poaceae). Molecular evidence suggests that within the Oryzeae, Luziola and
Zizaniopsis appear most closely allied, with Zizania relatively closely related. Leersia and
Oryza, which appear to be each other’s closest relatives, are in a second monophyletic lineage
within the Oryzeae (Ge et al. 2002). WILD RICE has long been used by Native Americans for food
(Johnson 1969), and Z. palustris L., NORTHERN WILD RICE, is still an important food, harvested in
the wild and cultivated in MN, CA, Ontario, and Saskatchewan (Terrell et al. 1997). Both Z.
palustris and Z. aquatica “are important constituents of aquatic plant communities in North
America, providing food and shelter for numerous animal species” (Terrell ined.). The Asian Z.
latifolia (Briseb.) Stapf is cultivated for its edible young shoots, especially those forms with
culms swollen from infection by a smut fungus, Ustilago esculenta Henn. (Terrell & Batra 1982;
Watson & Dallwitz 1992; Mabberley 1997; Terrell ined.). The following treatment draws heavily
on Terrell et al. (1997) and Terrell (ined.). (Greek: zizanion, old name for a weed growing in
grain—Terrell et al. 1997) (subfamily Ehrhartoideae, tribe Oryzeae)
REFERENCES: Fassett 1924; Emery 1967, 1977; Johnson 1969; Terrell et al. 1978, 1997; Emery &
Guy 1979; Warwick & Aiken 1986; Duvall & Biesboer 1988a, 1988b, 1989; Tucker 1988; Duvall et
al. 1993a; Horne & Kahn 1997; Power 2002; Power & Doyle 2004; Terrell ined.
1. Leaves usually emergent from water; culms usually erect, emergent from water (only rarely completely
submersed); ligules of upper leaves often truncate or erose OR occasionally acuminate;
plants annual, not stoloniferous; lemma of pistillate florets with awn 25–65(–100) mm long; grain
ca. as long as palea; species a questionable member of the East TX flora, possibly in extreme e
part of East TX ___________________________________________________________________ Z. aquatica
1. Leaves usually submersed; culms geniculate, long-streaming in flowing water or the upper parts
emergent; ligules of upper leaves acuminate or caudate; plants perennial, stoloniferous; lemma
of pistillate florets with awn 9–35 mm long; grain from ca. 1/2–nearly 3/4 as long as palea; species
known in TX only from Hays Co. near extreme w margin of East TX ________________________ Z. texana
Zizania aquatica L., (growing in or near water), INDIAN WILD RICE, SOUTHERN WILD RICE, WILD
RICE. Coarse annual; culms to ca. 3–4(–5) m tall; ligule 5–30 mm long; leaf blades to 1(–1.5) m long,
to 50(–72) mm wide; inflorescence 40–60(–120) cm long, to 34(–50) cm wide, with staminate
spikelets on the lower, spreading or drooping branches and pistillate spikelets on the upper ascending
branches; pedicels to ca. 6 mm long; staminate spikelets 5–12.5 mm long (excluding
awns), quickly deciduous, the lemma unawned or with awn 3 mm or less long; pistillate spikelets
7–25 mm long (excluding awns), the lemma long-awned. Marshes, lake shores, streams; included
based on citation for TX by Godfrey and Wooten (1979), Tucker (1988), and Kartesz