Zizania palustris
Plants annual. Culms to 3 m, erect, usually at least partly immersed. Sheaths glabrous or with scattered hairs; ligules 3-16 mm, upper ligules trun¬cate, lanceolate or triangular, erose; blades 20-60 cm long, 3-21(40+) mm wide, glabrous, margins glabrate or scabrous. Panicles 24-60 cm long, 1-20(40) cm wide; branches unisexual. Staminate branches ascending or divergent; pedicel apices 0.2-0.4 mm wide. Staminate spikelets 6-17 mm, lanceolate, acuminate or awned, awns to 2 mm. Pistillate branches mostly appressed or ascending, a few sometimes divergent; pedicel apices 0.7-1.2 mm wide. Pistillate spikelets 8-33 mm long, 1-2.6 mm wide, lanceolate or oblong, coriaceous or indurate, lustrous, glabrous or with lines of short hairs, apices usually hirsute and abruptly narrowed, awned, awns to 10 cm; lemmas and paleas remaining clasped at maturity; aborted pistillate spikelets 0.6-2.6 mm wide. Caryopses 6-30 mm long, 0.6-2 mm wide. 2n = 30.
Distribution
Conn., N.J., N.Y., Wash., Wis., Ala., Ark., Ill., Kans., Md., Mo., N.H., N.C., N.Dak., Iowa, Nebr., Pa., R.I., Colo., Calif., Ariz., Idaho, Ohio, S.Dak., W.Va., Vt., Ind., Maine, Mass., Minn., Mich., Mont., Oreg., Tenn., Ky., B.C., Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.
Discussion
Zizania palustris grows mostly to the north of Z. aquatica, but the two species overlap in the Great Lakes region, eastern Canada, and New England. It is cultivated as a crop in some provinces and states, with California being the largest producer. All records from the western part of the Flora region reflect deliberate plantings; none are known to have persisted. In cultivated strains, the pistillate spikelets remain on the plant at maturity.
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Lower pistillate branches with 9-30 spikelets; pistillate part of the inflorescence 10-40 cm or more wide, the branches ascending to widely divergent; plants 1-3 m tall; blades 10-40+ mm wide | Zizania palustris var. interior |
| 1 | Lower pistillate branches with 2-8 spikelets; pistillate part of the inflorescence 1-8(15) cm wide, the branches appressed or ascending, or a few branches somewhat divergent; plants to 2 m tall; blades 3-21 mm wide | Zizania palustris var. palustris |