Weedy Rice (Oryza spp.): What’s In a Name?

There are two species of cultivated rice in the world - Oryza sativa L. from Asia and O. glaberrima from Africa. The former was domesticated from the wild progenitor, O. rufipogon and the latter from the African wild rice species O. barthii. The first known center of rice cultivation in China generated the O. sativa subspecies japonica. The indica subspecies arose from the second center of domestication in the Ganges River plains of India. Variants of domesticated lines and the continuous hybridization between cultivated varieties and the wild progenitor(s) resulted in weedy rice types. Some weedy types resemble the wild ancestor, but the majority of weedy rices today bear close resemblance to cultivated rice. Weedy rice accompanies rice culture and has increased in occurrence with the global shift in rice establishment from transplanting to direct-seeded, or dry-drill-seeded rice. Weedy rice (Oryza spp.) is the most-difficult-weed to control in rice, causing as much as 90% yield loss or abandonment of severely infested fields. The gene flow continuum between cultivar and weedy rice or wild relative, crop dedomestication, and regionalized adaptation has resulted in a myriad of weedy rice types. The complex lineage of weedy rice has resulted in confusion of weedy rice nomenclature. Two names are generally used for weedy rice – O. sativa L. and O. sativa f. spontanea. Genomic data shows that Oryza sativa L. applies to weedy rice populations derived from cultivated O. sativa whereas spontanea applies only to weedy types that primarily descended from O. rufipogon. Neither of these names apply to African weedy rice, which are of African wild rice, or O. glaberrima lineage. Therefore, unless the lineage of the weedy population in question is known, the proper name to use is the generalized name Oryza spp.