Does anyone know where I could purchase wild rice or native american wild rice for planting? All I am able to come up with are sources to purchase rice for cooking.
A search for [GOOGLE]Zizania aquatica seeds[/GOOGLE] offers a few vendors as results. [GOOGLE]Zizania palustris seeds[/GOOGLE], however, seems to be lacking in places to purchase -- and that seems to be the species most often used for harvesting. You may want to contact the people at the Save Our Rice Alliance
Rainin, it will take a little effort, but you could try contacting your native plant society. I'm sure Indiana will have such groups. Maybe check out the Agricultural Extension office in your county to make the connection to native plants people. Some few of those native plants people will also forage for wild foods, or at least have knowledge of it. They will likely know someone who knows someone who has recently harvested some wild rice. While those someones have almost certainly cleaned their rice and stored it, they may be able to find some stray rice still in the husks in kayak crevices or backpack creases. Just keep in mind that native plants people are all unpaid, and sometimes a bit chary of demands on their time from people who want instant answers. Love of native plants goes a long way to securing their assistance. Caring for geriatric parents has kept me out of wild rice foraging for the last several years, and I don't even go to native plant meetings let alone on the walks anymore. The online people I know have already finished with their rice harvests, though.
Thank you thanrose. I will investigate the sources you mentioned. Am I correct in assuming that I would have to have planted next years rice from seed collected this year or are there means of storing the seed till spring so that it remains viable. I am still in the beginning stages of research on this plant and have a million questions. I wonder if the Dept of Soil and Water Conservation would have information that would be useful. I will try them also.
I don't know, Rainin. As a native plants person, I'd go with nature's method and plant as soon as possible. I'm sure rice is still falling in many wild areas. Planting it at home is making use of a different microclime, though. Maybe your location would warm up too early, or not get cold enough or dry enough. That's assuming that the natural locations for wild rice get a winter drought, which may be thoroughly faulty thinking on my part. Are you planting on a wetlands or water body or on a manmade water feature? I just did a google on zizania palustris propagation and the two links that interested me were from academic journals I can't access. This is probably the sort of thing that you'll have to coax from your correspondents. It's stuff they may not know directly, but will probably get you closer to answers you can use. How about your state university? Univ. of Florida has helped me in the past on a few esoteric searches in biological sciences. It's like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. "Okay, it's Botany then?... No, I think you really need Smith in Water Conservation... Oh no, not me, that would be Wilkes, our riparian specialist!... Well, did you try Gelman in Botany?... No, no, no, y'see this plant is critical to an endangered waterfowl, so you need Jasper in Forestry!" Another remote possibility: Do you have a regional place that sells water feature installments and supplies? In my region, we have kellyco, the company that sells that stuff and metal detector/salvor supplies. Interesting shop/warehouse. Anyway, they sell a variety of local water plants. You might have someone in your area that would have Z. palustris.
