''Oryza longistaminata'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

species of grass from the same genus as cultivated

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

(''O. sativa''). It is native to most of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It has been introduced into the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where it is often regarded as a

noxious weed A noxious weed, harmful weed or injurious weed is a weed that has been designated by an agricultural or other governing authority as a plant that is injurious to agricultural or horticultural crops, natural habitats or ecosystems, or humans or liv ...

. Its common names are longstamen rice and red rice. The host resistance gene, ''Xa21'', from ''O. longistaminata'', has been integrated into the genome of '' O. sativa'' as it confers broad resistance to rice blight disease caused by ''Xanthomonas oryzae'' pv. ''oryzae''.Rice Genetics Newsletter, Vol. 20: Evaluation of durable resistance of transgenic hybrid maintainer line IR58025B for bacterial blight disease of rice
/ref>

Distribution

''O. longistaminata'' is native throughout Africa.

References

External links

longistaminata Grasses of Africa Plants described in 1914 Weeds Taxa named by Auguste Chevalier {{Poaceae-stub