Morphological characteristics

Perennial, tufted, and scrambling grass with nodal tillering; plant height variable (1-5 m) depending on the depth of water; panicles open; spikelets usually 4.5-10.6 mm long and 1.6-3.5 mm wide with awns usually 4-10 cm long; anthers >3 mm reaching 7.4 mm long.

Chromosome number

2n=2x=24

Genome

AA

Distribution

Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Habitat

Found in swamps and marshes, in open ditches, swampy grassland, ponds, along river banks, at the edges of lakes, and in or at the margins of rice fields, commonly found in deep water areas (0.2-4 m). Grows in clay/loam soil and black soil, in full sun.

A close-up panicle, in GRC’s screen house, Philippines

Habitat: in a swamp, Bangladesh

Plants occurring in a swamp near a rice field, Nepal

Plants growing in a big swamp, Nepal

Children playing in a canal, Cambodia, surrounded by wild rice

A large O. rufipogon population of ca. 200 hectares in the eastern part of Nepal