What is "oryza"

Oryza \O*ry"za\, prop. n. [L., rice, Gr. ? See Rice.] (Bot.) A genus of grasses including the rice plant; rice.

Oryza is a genus of plants in the grass family. It includes the major food crop rice (species Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima). Members of the genus grow as tall, wetland grasses, growing to 1–2 m tall; the genus includes both annual and perennial species.

Oryza is situated in tribe Oryzeae, which is characterized morphologically by its single-flowered spikelets whose glumes are almost completely suppressed. In Oryza, two sterile lemma simulate glumes. The tribe Oryzeae is in subfamily Ehrhartoideae, a group of Poaceae tribes with certain features of internal leaf anatomy in common. The most distinctive leaf characteristics of this subfamily are the arm cells and fusoid cells found in their leaves.

One species, Asian rice ( O. sativa), provides 20% of global grain and is a food crop of major global importance. The species are divided into two subgroups within the genus.

Over 300 names have been proposed for species, subspecies, and other infraspecific taxa within the genus. Published sources disagree as to how many of these should be recognized as distinct species. The following follows the World Checklist maintained by Kew Garden in London.

1. Oryza australiensis - Australia
2. Oryza barthii - tropical Africa
3. Oryza brachyantha - tropical Africa
4. Oryza coarctata - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar
5. Oryza eichingeri - tropical Africa, Sri Lanka
6. Oryza glaberrima - African rice - tropical Africa
7. Oryza grandiglumis - Brazil, Venezuela, Fr Guiana, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia
8. Oryza latifolia - Latin America + West Indies from Sinaloa + Cuba to Argentina
9. Oryza longiglumis - New Guinea
10. Oryza longistaminata - Madagascar, tropical + southern Africa
11. Oryza meyeriana - China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia
12. Oryza minuta - Himalayas, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Northern Territory of Australia
13. Oryza neocaledonica - New Caldeonia
14. Oryza officinalis - China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia
15. Oryza punctata - Madagascar, tropical + southern Africa
16. Oryza ridleyi - Southeast Asia, New Guinea
17. Oryza rufipogon - brownbeard or red rice - China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia
18. Oryza sativa - Asian rice - China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia; naturalized many places
19. Oryza schlechteri - New Guinea

many species now regarded as better suited to other genera: Echinochloa Leersia Maltebrunia Potamophila Prosphytochloa Rhynchoryza