If you find this kind of rice, you must protect it! It is as precious as the giant panda

If you come across a weed-like plant in the wild

But don't underestimate it

It is very likely the ancestor of rice - wild rice

Recently, in Baiyu Town, Shanglin County, Nanning City

In a swamp

I found a patch of wild rice.

Wild rice fields in Nanning Source: Nanning News

Wild rice has the extraordinary ability to improve cultivated rice

A valuable gene pool

Rice breeding and production in my country

and food security are of great significance

Let’s get to know this “behind-the-scenes hero”!

Can't tell the difference between wild rice and rice?

Wild rice is a national second-class protected plant.

Because it is currently endangered

So it is called the "Plant Panda".

Different types of wild rice Source: China Science Daily

Wild rice is the common name for all wild rice plants in the genus Oryza in the Poaceae family.

There are three species of wild rice distributed in China.

Oryza sativa L

Oryza serrata

Three species of wild rice are distributed in Jiangxi in the south of my country.

Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi

Yunnan, Hainan and seven provinces

Mainly grows in rivers below 700 meters

Ponds in plain areas

Ditches, swamps and other wetlands

A plant needs to be able to be food

Three skills are required

Large yield, easy to plant, good harvest

Wild rice is different from traditional cultivated rice

In resisting pests and diseases, adapting to drought

Frost, flooding, strong soil acidity and alkalinity, etc.

Adverse environment

Has a very big advantage

——This is their long-term survival in the wild

The result of continuous adaptation and evolution

Different types of rice Source: Internet

But at the same time, wild rice also has some disadvantages

The fruit is not full enough and difficult to harvest

The Neolithic Age, about 10,000 years ago

Humans begin to domesticate wild plants

Our ancestors continuously cultivated, selected and nurtured rice.

To this day

Rice experts from various countries continue to advance rice cultivation technology

Overcame difficulties one after another

Let us realize "rice freedom"

What is wild rice good for?

If wild rice is successfully hybridized with cultivated rice,

Then there is a certain probability

The good genetic traits of wild rice

Passed to the next generation after hybridization

Based on sufficient breeding and long-term testing

Separate the hybrid offspring with stable and excellent traits

This will also enable the cultivation of "super" rice that better meets human needs.

From the history of rice cultivation in my country

Early 19th century

China is using the excellent characteristics of wild rice to breed rice

1930s

Ding Ying, a famous agricultural scientist in my country, used wild rice as a parent

A new cold-resistant variety, Zhongshan No. 1, was developed

And successively bred 86 derivative varieties of Zhongshan No. 1

1970s

Academician Yuan Longping used the characteristics of wild rice male sterility

Successfully used the wild abortion breeding three-line technology

A number of excellent hybrid rice combinations were formulated

Common wild rice Source: Guigang Publicity

How to protect wild rice?

Ordinary wild rice has been domesticated for nearly 10,000 years and has become a farm variety.

After nearly a hundred years of modern breeding

Becoming a modern cultivated rice variety

This process is accompanied by a decrease in genetic diversity.

and the loss of many excellent genes

Not only that

With the gradual expansion of modern agricultural cultivated land area

The wild habitat of common wild rice is being destroyed

Germplasm resources continue to shrink

It is no longer possible to "grow wildly"

Wild rice ears Source: Internet

Three wild rice species distributed in China

They are listed as national second-class protected plants

The most endangered species is common wild rice

Faced with this situation

my country has taken a variety of measures to protect wild rice.

On the one hand, in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan

Establish protected areas or protection sites in distribution areas such as Yunnan

In situ conservation

On the one hand, through germplasm resource banks,

Ex situ protection of large scientific facilities or platforms

Also, conducting research

Solving the reproductive isolation between cultivated rice and its wild relative

The foundation of genomics

Source: China Science Daily, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NetEase News

Cover image from: Haikou.com

Compiled by: Dong Xiaoxian and Cai Lin

END

Editor/Muzi