Rice (Oryza sativa)

Oryza sativa, commonly called Asian rice, is a domesticated grass species whose seed is the staple food of more than half the world population, especially across Africa and Asia. It was domesticated in China roughly nine thousand years ago among Neolithic cultures along the Yangtze River, and genetic evidence indicates both its indica and japonica forms trace to that single domestication event, distinguishing it from the separately domesticated African rice, Oryza glaberrima. The plant produces several leafy stems, or tillers, topped with branched flower clusters called panicles that can carry as many as three hundred fifty spikelets. In 2023 global production reached about eight hundred million tonnes, making it the third largest crop by volume after sugarcane and maize.