'Purple Petrowski' is the newest wildrice variety from
the U of M Agricultural Experiment Station, with a natural
maroon and gold color scheme. It has high resistance to
shattering and lodging, produces high yields and is
moderately resistant to a major fungal disease.
Wildrice is an aquatic grass revered by Native Americans
in the Lake States, New England, and Canada. The only cereal
grain native to the United States, this delicacy is
Minnesota's State Grain. In the 1950s University plant
scientists began studying hundreds of alternative crops,
including wildrice. At the same time, interested farmers in
northern Minnesota began to form a cultivated wildrice
industry to meet increased demand.
Researchers were challenged in taming the wildrice plant
to make it suitable for paddy production. There were
limitations of planting, caring for, and harvesting an
aquatic species. The seed head "shatters" when ripe, sending
the precious crop into the water. Plants in natural stands
mature at widely different times so several harvests must be
made. And, the seed is not viable unless it is stored in
conditions similar to a lake bottom.
Nevertheless, by 1964 selections were successfully grown
in U of M paddies in St. Paul. Since then, nine varieties of
paddy wildrice have been developed, each with improved
production or disease-resistance characteristics.
Today there are two wildrice communities. Native
Americans hand-harvest wildrice by traditional methods, from
canoes and using flails to dislodge the grain, which is
labeled "lake grown." U of M varieties are grown by
commercial producers in paddies where mechanical harvesting
is done by specialized combines. Minnesota produces over 6
million pounds of "paddy grown" wildrice, and much of it goes
to food processors that market it in blends with white rice.
Interestingly, recent DNA analysis shows that white
rice and wildrice have some common ancestry, contrary to
earlier thinking that these species evolved separately in
Asia and North America.
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Much of the U.S. wildrice research takes place at the
University's North Central Research and Outreach Center,
Grand Rapids, where results are shared with growers and
others interested in this unique crop. Nets cover the paddies
to protect the research from birds.
Wildrice beds, lake or paddy, are home to a wide
variety of insect, aquatic, waterfowl, and amphibious
species, such as this frog.
Objectives of the wildrice breeding program are to
develop:
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More lodging resistance
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Earlier maturity
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Resistance to leaf diseases
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Increased shattering resistance
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Multiple stems that mature together
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Seed that can be stored dry
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Forage Legumes
