''Porteresia coarctata'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of grass in the family Poaceae, native to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Sri Lanka,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. ''Porteresia coarctata'' is considered by some botanists to be the only species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Porteresia''. Other authors maintain instead that it should belong in the rice genus '' Oryza'',Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, entry for ''Oryza''
/ref> as ''Oryza coarctata'' Roxb. It is a form of wild rice that grows in saline estuaries in

and India and is harvested and eaten as a delicacy. The plant is salt-tolerant, and is seen as a possibly important source of salt-tolerance genes for transfer to other rice species. It is closely related to '' Oryza australiensis''. The leaves of this species secrete salt through special microhair like structures that have three morphotypes, and a method to isolate these structures has been developed. ''Porteresia coarctata'' is a perennial species that shows substantial underground rhizomatous growth. The rhizome tissues give out aerial shoots in a favourable season.Jagtap, T.G., Bhosale, S. and Charulata, S., 2006. Characterization of Porteresia coarctata beds along the Goa coast, India. Aquatic Botany, 84(1), pp.37-44.

References

External links

Grassbase - The World Online Grass Flora
Oryzoideae Monotypic Poaceae genera Flora of the Indian subcontinent Edible plants Cereals {{Poaceae-stub