Zizania latifolia


Zizania latifolia, known as Manchurian wildrice (Chinese:菰; pinyin:gū), is the only member of the wild rice genus Zizania native to Asia. It is used as a food plant, with both the stem and grain being edible. Gathered from the wild, was once an important grain in ancient China. A wetland plant, Manchurian wild rice is now very rare in the wild, and its use as a grain has completely disappeared in China, though it continues to be cultivated for its stems. A measure is its former popularity is that the surname Jiǎng (Trad. 蔣, Simp. 蒋), one of the most common in China, derives from this crop.