6 
BULLETIN 465, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
compactly grouped. The grain (fig. 2, A) of wild rice is from 
one-half to three-fourths of an inch in length, slender, of uniform 
diameter, and with rounded or pointed ends. A low rib runs along 
the whole length of one side and a shallow groove along the other. 
The husk of the seed (fig. 2, B) has six longitudinal grooves and a 
long, pointed beak, the whole being an inch and a half or sometimes 
even more in length. The appearance of the flower head or of the 
Fig. 2. — Wild rice seed: (A) With the hull off and (B) with the hull on. (From Bull. 50, 
Bureau of Plant Industry.) 
grain distinguishes wild rice from any other aquatic grass in its 
range. 1 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Natural growths of wild rice have been found from the northern 
end of Lake Winnipeg eastward along the northern shores of the 
1 The southern white marsh or folle avoine {Zizaniopsis), superficially much like Zizania, 
does not have the flower head as a whole divided into pistillate and staminate parts, and 
the grain is ovoid and without a long beak. 
