Annual Wild Rice
Zizania aquatica
A tall annual grass of shallow water and tidal freshwater marshes, with airy summer panicles that ripen into the nutritious dark grain harvested for centuries. Reseeds itself each year and draws clouds of red-winged blackbirds, bobolinks, rails, and waterfowl to feed in its stands.
- Family
- Poaceae
- Type
- grass
- Lifespan
- annual
- Height
- 3–10 ft
- Spacing
- 1–2 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- wet
- Soil pH
- acidic, neutral
- Bloom
- July, August
- Bloom colors
- green, purple
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, mammals
- Landscape uses
- naturalizing, rain garden
- Native states
- CT, DC, DE, FL, IA, IN, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI