6. Chinese common wild rice close to the Japonica type

Ping-Yong YUAN1, Y.Z. ZHANG1 and H.W. CAI2

1) Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kunming, 650205 China

2) Beijing Acricultural University, Beijing, 100094 China

Morishima (1986, 1987) reported that a Chinese common wild rice (O. rufipogon) showed primitive growth habit and characters resembling those of the Japonica type. A survey of small samples of foreign and indigenous wild rices has led us to the same conclusion. Chinese wild rice differed from foreign ones significantly in flag-leaf width (narrower), its length/width ratio (larger), fertile seed number per panicle (smaller), and percent seed set when bagged (smaller; 

Table 1. Mean character values of Chinese and foreign wild rices
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       Character               Chinese     Foreign    Difference
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No. of strains observed           13       12
Flag-leaf width (cm)               0.86     1.06      0.19+/-0.06*
L/W ratio of flag-leaf (%)        43.6     29.7      13.9+/-5.81**
Spikelets per panicle             41.6     51.2       9.6+/-7.31
Fertile seeds/panicle              7.9     28.2      20.3+/-4.86*
Seed setting rate (%)             20.2     54.8      34.6+/-9.16*
==============================================================================
* P<0.05, ** P<0.01.

Table 1).

Esterase isozymes characterizing the Japonica and Indica types were 58.1 and 22.1%, respectively, in Chinese wild strains, while 19.3 and 47.7% in the foreign ones observed, respectively. All these are in accord with Fig. 4 in Morishima and Gadrinab (1987).

References

Morishima, H., 1986. Wild progenitors of cultivated rice and their population dynamics. Rice Genetics, p. 3-14, IRRI, Manila.

Morishima, H. and L. U. Gadrinab, 1987. Are the Asian coomon wild rices differentiated into the Indica and Japonica types? Crop Exploration and Utilization of Genetic Resources, p. 11-20. Taichung District Agricultural Improvement Station, Changhua, Taiwan (ed. S. C. Hsieh).