10 wild rice: its uses and propagation. 



distribution and habitat of the plant. 



The wild rice plant (Zizania aquatica L.) occurs naturall}" over a 

 wide area in the United States and southern Canada. The same species 

 is also reported from Japan, Formosa, and China. It finds its best 

 environment in the United States in fresh- water lakes and river 

 sloughs and along the seacoast where streams meet tidewater. It 

 requires that the water in which it grows be fresh, that is, not brackish, 

 and that it be neither quite stagnant nor too swiftly moving, and while 

 it thrives on a wide variety of soils under these waters it does best 

 where the bottoms are soft and muddy. 



The change in water level where the plant grows is an important 

 item. For instance, it will frequently fail to do well or to grow at all 

 in some of the northern lakes through which the Mississippi flows, 

 especially if the annual change in water level in these lakes is more 

 than 2 or 3 feet. There is on this account in the minds of some observ- 

 ers an opinion that wild rice normally grows only alternate years, or 

 at least that it does not grow every } 7 ear in a given locality. This 

 idea is without foundation and its existence is probably due to the 

 fact that occasional years of high water prevent the development of 

 wild rice for that year, while a normal level the following 3 r ear per- 

 mits the regular growth. 



This calls attention to the peculiar vitality of the seed of this plant. 

 It is evident that if the growth of wild rice in a given locality is 

 wholly prevented for a year by high water and there is an abundant 

 growth the next } T ear when the water level is normal, there must be a 

 large proportion of the seed which remains dormant and viable for at 

 least eighteen months after it reaches maturity. 



In streams affected by tidewater, however, where the daily change 

 of water level sometimes amounts to 3 feet or more, wild rice may 

 grow vigorously. It is abundant along the shores of the lower Potomac, 

 where it grows on mud flats that are nearly or quite exposed at low tide 

 and submerged by 2 to 8 feet of water at high tide. The plant has in 

 this case become adapted to this frequent change of water level, but if 

 for any reason high water were retained over these beds for any con- 

 siderable length of time during the early spring the plants would 

 hardly develop. 



The following table shows the results of analyses of soils from various 

 wild-rice fields. These results arc given to show the general nature 

 and physical condition of the soils of lake bottoms where wild rice 

 ordinarily grows and to show the limits of the adaptation of the plant 

 to the sahVy conditions found where fresh-water streams meet tide- 

 water. These analyses were made by the Bureau of Soils of this 

 Department. 



