Oryza coarctata, synonym Porteresia coarctata, is a species of grass which is related to other rice species in the Oryzeae botanical tribe, part of the family Poaceae. It is native to Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. It 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.
Oryza coarctata is a form of wild rice that grows in saline estuaries 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 distinct morphotypes, and a method to isolate these structures has been developed. The rhizomes store a significant amount of salt and also control the flow of salt to the developing shoots.Rajakani, R., Sellamuthu, G., Ishikawa, T., Ahmed, H.A.I., Bharathan, S., Kumari, K., Shabala, L., Zhou, M., Chen, Z.H., Shabala, S. and Venkataraman, G., 2021. Reduced apoplastic barriers in tissues of shoot-proximal rhizomes of Oryza coarctata are associated with Na+ sequestration. Journal of Experimental Botany. Somasundaram, S., Véry, A.A., Vinekar, R.S., Ishikawa, T., Kumari, K., Pulipati, S., Kumaresan, K., Corratgé-Faillie, C., Sowdhamini, R., Parida, A. and Shabala, L., 2020. Homology modeling identifies crucial amino-acid residues that confer higher Na+ transport capacity of OcHKT1; 5 from Oryza coarctata Roxb. Plant and Cell Physiology, 61(7), pp.1321-1334.
References
External links Grassbase - The World Online Grass Flora