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75-565: Wild rice , also called manoomin , mnomen , Psíŋ , Canada rice , Indian rice , or water oats , is any of four species of grasses that form the genus Zizania , and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically and is still gathered and eaten in North America and, to a lesser extent, China , where the plant's stem is used as a vegetable. Wild rice is not directly related to domesticated rice ( Oryza sativa and Oryza glaberrima ), although both belong to

150-499: A sod -forming perennial grass used in agriculture is Thinopyrum intermedium . Grasses are used as raw material for a multitude of purposes, including construction and in the composition of building materials such as cob , for insulation, in the manufacture of paper and board such as oriented structural straw board . Grass fiber can be used for making paper , biofuel production, nonwoven fabrics, and as replacement for glass fibers used in reinforced plastics. Bamboo scaffolding

225-527: A centuries-long journey to the west along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes. The Anishinaabe migration story details a vision to follow a giant clam shell in the sky to a place where the food grows on the water. This journey ended between the late 1400s and early 1600s in the Lake Superior wild rice country when they encountered the plant. Archaeological and other scientific investigations have focused on

300-584: A photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy , which allows for increased water use efficiency , rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments. The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses. Although the C4 species are all in the PACMAD clade (see diagram below), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In

375-596: A smaller part of the vegetation in almost every other terrestrial habitat. Grass-dominated biomes are called grasslands. If only large, contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands include pampas , steppes , and prairies . Grasses provide food to many grazing mammals, as well as to many species of butterflies and moths . Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food, and are called graminivores – these include cattle , sheep , horses , rabbits and many invertebrates , such as grasshoppers and

450-910: A variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo . Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests , dry deserts , cold mountains and even intertidal habitats , and are currently the most widespread plant type; grass is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife. A cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets: Chloridoideae (1600) Danthonioideae (300) Micrairoideae (200) Arundinoideae (50) Panicoideae (3250) Aristidoideae (350) Oryzoideae (110) Bambusoideae – bamboos (1450) Pooideae (3850) Puelioideae (11) Pharoideae (13) Anomochlooideae (4) Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Finds of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites from

525-676: Is a city in Mahnomen County , Minnesota , United States, along the Wild Rice River . The population was 1,240 at the 2020 census . It is the seat of Mahnomen County. U.S. Highway 59 and Minnesota State Highway 200 are two of the main routes in Mahnomen. The name "Mahnomen" comes from manoomin , the Ojibwe word for wild rice . A post office called Mahnomen has been in operation since 1904. Mahnomen City Hall

600-473: Is a grass used as a culinary herb for its citrus-like flavor and scent. Many species of grass are grown as pasture for foraging or as fodder for prescribed livestock feeds, particularly in the case of cattle , horses , and sheep . Such grasses may be cut and stored for later feeding, especially for the winter, in the form of bales of hay or straw , or in silos as silage . Straw (and sometimes hay) may also be used as bedding for animals. An example of

675-470: Is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses . It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos , the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture . The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass . With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family , following

750-570: Is able to withstand typhoon-force winds that would break steel scaffolding. Larger bamboos and Arundo donax have stout culms that can be used in a manner similar to timber, Arundo is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments , and bamboo is used for innumerable implements. Phragmites australis (common reed) is important for thatching and wall construction of homes in Africa. Grasses are used in water treatment systems, in wetland conservation and land reclamation , and used to lessen

825-673: Is especially common in China, where it is known as gāosǔn (高筍) or jiāobái (茭白). In Japan it is known as makomodake ( ja:マコモダケ ). Other names which may be used in English include coba and water bamboo . Importation of the vegetable to the United States is prohibited in order to protect North American species from the smut fungus . Wild rice is relatively high in protein , the amino acid lysine and dietary fiber , and low in fat . Nutritional analysis shows wild rice to be

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900-1003: Is for piecing together historical landscapes and weather patterns, considering other factors such as genetic material amount might also affect pollen size. Despite these challenges, new techniques in Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and improved statistical methods are now helping to better identify these similar-looking pollen types. Grasses are the primary plants used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land. Grass lawns are an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football (soccer) , American football , tennis , golf , cricket , softball and baseball . Mahnomen, Minnesota Mahnomen ( / m ə ˈ n oʊ m ən / mə- NOH -mən )

975-606: Is linked to crop improvement, since meiotic recombination is an important component of plant breeding . Unlike in animals, the specification of both male and female plant germlines occurs late in development during flowering. The transition from the sporophyte phase to the gametophyte state is initiated by meiotic entry. Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Their economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns . They have been grown as food for domesticated animals for up to 6,000 years and

1050-498: Is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The city is served by Mahnomen ISD 432. Mahnomen is in the western part of its county, along U.S. Route 59, which leads north 25 miles (40 km) to Erskine and south 36 miles (58 km) to Detroit Lakes . State Highway 200 passes just north of the city limits, leading west 28 miles (45 km) to Ada and east 77 miles (124 km) to Walker . According to

1125-454: Is native to Asia : Texas wild rice is in danger of extinction due to loss of suitable habitat in its limited range and to pollution . The pollen of Texas wild rice can only travel about 30 inches away from a parent plant. If pollen does not land on a receptive female flower within that distance, no seeds are produced. Manchurian wild rice has almost disappeared from the wild in its native range, but has been accidentally introduced into

1200-503: Is still often gathered from lakes in the traditional manner, especially by indigenous peoples in North America; the latter was also used extensively in the past. The stems and root shoots also contain an edible portion on the interior. Native Americans and others harvest wild rice by canoeing into a stand of plants, and bending the ripe grain heads with two small wooden poles/sticks called "knockers" or "flails", so as to thresh

1275-764: Is that wild rice as a food source was related to these three developments. An example of a northeast Minnesota wild rice location, the Big Rice site in the Superior National Forest, considered a classic Initial and Terminal Woodland period type site, illustrates the methods of archaeological investigations into the plant's use by humans through time. Archaeological techniques along with ethnographic records and tribal oral testimony, when taken together, suggest use of this particular lakeside site since 50 BC. On its own, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of wild rice seeds and charcoal samples from

1350-454: The Aristida genus for example, one species ( A. longifolia ) is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of Andropogoneae , which includes maize , sorghum , sugar cane , " Job's tears ", and bluestem grasses , is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on

1425-720: The Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous approximately 113–100 million years ago, which were found to belong to primitive lineages within Poaceae, similar in position to the Anomochlooideae. These are currently the oldest known grass fossils. The relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more closely related to each other than to Oryzoideae. This separation occurred within

1500-508: The Americas ). Sugarcane is the major source of sugar production. Additional food uses of sugarcane include sprouted grain , shoots , and rhizomes , and in drink they include sugarcane juice and plant milk , as well as rum , beer , whisky , and vodka . Bamboo shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh, fermented and canned versions. Lemongrass

1575-556: The Asteraceae , Orchidaceae , Fabaceae and Rubiaceae . The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize , wheat , rice , oats , barley , and millet for people and as feed for meat-producing animals . They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of

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1650-458: The Cenozoic contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, fire-cleared areas are quickly colonized by grasses, and with enough rain, tree seedlings. Trees eventually outcompete most grasses. Trampling grazers kill seedling trees but not grasses. Sexual reproduction and meiosis have been studied in rice , maize , wheat and barley . Meiosis research in these crop species

1725-546: The U.S. Census Bureau , Mahnomen has an area of 1.05 square miles (2.72 km ), all of it land. The Wild Rice River passes through the southernmost part of the city, flowing west to join the Red River north of Hendrum . Mahnomen is in the western part of the White Earth Indian Reservation , which includes all of Mahnomen County and parts of neighboring counties to the east and south. As of

1800-461: The census of 2010, there were 1,214 people, 529 households, and 293 families living in the city. The population density was 1,145.3 inhabitants per square mile (442.2/km ). There were 582 housing units at an average density of 549.1 per square mile (212.0/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 59.3% White , 0.2% African American , 31.2% Native American , 0.1% Asian , and 9.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of

1875-422: The ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath. Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets , each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes . The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at

1950-457: The smut fungus Ustilago esculenta . The fungus prevents the plant from flowering, so the crop is propagated asexually, the infection being passed from mother plant to daughter plant. Harvest must be made between about 120 days and 170 days after planting, after the stem begins to swell, but before the infection reaches its reproductive stage, when the stem will begin to turn black and eventually disintegrate into fungal spores. The vegetable

2025-528: The Anishinaabe and other north woods tribal members despite the availability of more easily obtainable food sources. The continued use of wild rice from ancient to modern times has provided opportunities to examine the plant's processing by various cultures through the archaeological record they left behind during their occupation of seasonal ricing camps. Early ethnographic reports, tribal accounts and historical writings also inform archaeological research in

2100-701: The Archaic period. This date is 1,600 years before the AMS radiocarbon date of human-processed charred wild rice seeds at the site during the Initial Woodland period, although there is no archaeological evidence of human use of the wild rice at the site that far back in time as of yet. Poaceae Gramineae  Juss. Poaceae ( / p oʊ ˈ eɪ s i . iː , - s i aɪ / poh- AY -see-e(y)e ), also called Gramineae ( / ɡ r ə ˈ m ɪ n i . iː , - n i aɪ / grə- MIN -ee-e(y)e ),

2175-422: The Big Rice itself indicated indigenous use of this site dating to 2,050 years ago. Furthermore, all excavation levels that solely contained ceramics only used during the Initial Woodland period (known as Laurel pottery complex) also included wild rice seeds. This indicated the use of wild rice during the Initial Woodland period, according to the study. Excavators have documented more than 50,000 pottery shards from

2250-613: The Chippewa, Ojibwa and Ojibwe. The Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology published The Wild Rice Gatherers in the Upper Great Lakes: A Study in American Primitive Economics by Albert Ernest Jenks in 1901. In addition to his fieldwork interviewing members of various tribal communities, Jenks examined the accounts of explorers, fur traders and government agents from the early 1600s to

2325-614: The Ojibwe filed a lawsuit on behalf of wild rice to stop the Enbridge Line 3 oil sands pipeline , which puts the plant's habitat at risk. Tribes that are recorded as historically harvesting Zizania aquatica are the Dakota, Menominee, Meskwaki, Ojibwe, Cree, Omaha, Ponca, Thompson, and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). Native people who utilized Zizania palustris are the Ojibwe, Ottawa/Odawa and Potawatomi. Ways of preparing it varied from stewing

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2400-521: The Ojibwe, consider wild rice to be a sacred component of their culture. The Ojibwe people call this plant manoomin , meaning "harvesting berry" (commonly translated "good berry"). In 2018, the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe granted manoomin certain rights (sometimes compared to rights of nature or to granting it legal personhood ), including the right to exist and flourish; in August 2021,

2475-562: The Poaceae are used as building materials ( bamboo , thatch , and straw ); others can provide a source of biofuel , primarily via the conversion of maize to ethanol . Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of

2550-460: The acre, dug ditches for drainage, and put in water controls. In the fall, they tilled the soil. Then, in the spring of 1951, they acquired 50 lb (23 kg) of seed from Wildlife Nurseries Inc. They scattered the seed onto the soil, diked it in, and flooded the paddy. Much to their surprise, since they were told wild rice needs flowing water to grow well, the seeds sprouted and produced a crop. They continued to experiment with wild rice throughout

2625-421: The age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.4% were non-families. 37.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 25.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16 and the average family size was 2.85. In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.3% under

2700-460: The age of 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 21.9% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 27.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 26,000, and the median income for a family was $ 37,500. Males had a median income of $ 24,479 versus $ 21,625 for females. The per capita income for

2775-434: The appearance of the plant itself in lakes and streams have been the subjects of continuing academic debates. These disputes may be framed around these questions: When did wild rice first appear in various areas of the region? When was it plentiful enough to be harvested in quantities to be a significant food source? What is the relationship of wild rice to the introduction of pottery and to increases in indigenous populations in

2850-580: The associated charcoal left behind during the parching stage of rice production, and 2) Examination of preserved wild rice seeds associated with specific prehistoric pottery styles found in excavations of processing sites. Different pottery styles in northern Minnesota are linked to certain times in the Initial and Terminal Woodland periods stretching from around 500 BC to the time of contact between indigenous peoples and Europeans. To place this in context, "Although ceramics may have appeared as early as 2,000 BC in

2925-442: The base, called glumes , followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma —and one internal—the palea . The flowers are usually hermaphroditic — maize being an important exception—and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules , that expand and contract to spread

3000-450: The caterpillars of many brown butterflies . Grasses are also eaten by omnivorous or even occasionally by primarily carnivorous animals. Grasses dominate certain biomes , especially temperate grasslands , because many species are adapted to grazing and fire. Grasses are unusual in that the meristem is near the bottom of the plant; hence, grasses can quickly recover from cropping at the top. The evolution of large grazing animals in

3075-442: The city. The population density was 1,252.9 inhabitants per square mile (483.7/km ). There were 576 housing units at an average density of 600.4 per square mile (231.8/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 74.29% White , 0.08% African American , 16.06% Native American , and 9.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.08% of the population. There were 532 households, out of which 25.9% had children under

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3150-508: The early 1950s and were the first to officially cultivate the previously wild crop. In the United States, the main producers are California and Minnesota (where it is the official state grain ), and it is mainly cultivated in paddy fields . In Canada, it is usually harvested from natural bodies of water; the largest producer is Saskatchewan . Wild rice is also produced in Hungary and Australia . In Hungary, cultivation started in 1974 on

3225-835: The erosional impact of urban storm water runoff. Pollen morphology, particularly in the Poaceae family, is key to figuring out their evolutionary relationships and how environments have changed over time . Grass pollen grains, however, often look the same, making it hard to use them for detailed climate or environmental reconstructions. Grass pollen has a single pore and can vary a lot in size, from about 20 to over 100 micrometers, and this size difference has been looked into for clues about past habitats, to tell apart domesticated grasses from wild ones, and to indicate various biological features like how they perform photosynthesis , their breeding systems, and genetic complexity. Yet, there's ongoing debate about how effective pollen size

3300-469: The full list of Poaceae genera . The grass family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on Earth . Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica . The Antarctic hair grass, Deschampsia antarctica is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula . Grasses are the dominant vegetation in many habitats, including grassland , salt-marsh , reedswamp and steppes . They also occur as

3375-473: The grain second only to oats in protein content per 100 calories. Like true rice, it does not contain gluten . It is also a good source of certain minerals and B vitamins. One cup of cooked wild rice provides 5% or more of the daily value of thiamin , riboflavin , iron , and potassium ; 10% or more of the daily value of niacin , vitamin B 6 , folate , magnesium , phosphorus ; 15% of zinc ; and over 20% of manganese . Wild rice seeds can be infected by

3450-478: The grains of grasses such as wheat , rice, maize (corn) and barley have been the most important human food crops . Grasses are also used in the manufacture of thatch , paper , fuel , clothing , insulation , timber for fencing , furniture , scaffolding and construction materials, floor matting , sports turf and baskets . Of all crops grown, 70% are grasses. Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called cereals or grains (although

3525-652: The grains with venison stock and/or maple syrup, making it into stuffings for wild birds, or even steaming it into sweets like puffed rice, or rice pudding sweetened with maple syrup. For these groups, the harvest of wild rice is an important cultural (and often economic) event. The Omǣqnomenēwak tribe were named Omanoominii by the neighboring Ojibwa after this plant. Many places in Illinois, Indiana, Manitoba, Michigan, Minnesota, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Wisconsin are named after this plant, including Mahnomen, Minnesota , and Menomonie, Wisconsin ; many lakes and streams bear

3600-459: The highly toxic fungus ergot , which is dangerous if eaten. Infected grains have pink or purplish blotches or growths of the fungus, from the size of a seed to several times larger. Anthropologists since the early 1900s have focused on wild rice as a food source, often with an emphasis on the harvesting of the aquatic plant in the Lake Superior region by the Anishinaabe people, also known as

3675-441: The human use of wild rice. For example, geographer and ethnologist Henry Schoolcraft in the mid-1800s wrote about depressions in the ground on the shore of a lake with wild rice growing in the water. He wrote that wild rice processors placed animal hides in the holes, filled them with rice and stomped on the rice to thresh it. These jigging pits are part of the husking needed to process wild rice, and archaeologists see these holes in

3750-463: The land area of the Earth , excluding Greenland and Antarctica . Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands , forests and tundra . Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the seagrasses , rushes and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales , but

3825-542: The last Ice Age; the Archaic period from 2,500 to 7,000 years ago (5000–500 BC); the Initial Woodland period from 2,500 to 1,300 years ago (500 BC–700 AD); the Terminal Woodland period from 1,300 to 400 years ago (700–1600 AD); and the historical period after that time. These rough dates are open to debate and vary by location in the state. In general, two lines of inquiry have focused on archaeological wild rice: 1) The radiocarbon dating of charred wild rice seeds or

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3900-468: The late 1800s to detail an "aboriginal economic activity which is absolutely unique, and in which no article is employed not of aboriginal conception and workmanship". His study further notes wild rice's importance in the fur-trading era because the region would have been nearly inaccessible if not for the availability of wild rice and the ability to store it for long periods of time. Wild rice's social and economic importance has continued into present times for

3975-453: The latest Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) aged Lameta Formation of India have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, fossils from the same deposit were found to belong to the modern rice tribe Oryzeae , suggesting substantial diversification of major lineages by this time. In 2018, a study described grass microfossils extracted from the teeth of the hadrosauroid dinosaur Equijubus normani from northern China, dating to

4050-624: The latter term, when used agriculturally, refers to both cereals and similar seeds of other plant species, such as buckwheat and legumes ). Three cereals—rice, wheat, and maize (corn)—provide more than half of all calories consumed by humans. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrates for humans and perhaps the major source of protein; these include rice (in southern and eastern Asia ), maize (in Central and South America ), and wheat and barley (in Europe , northern Asia and

4125-463: The leaves are attached. Grass leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths , which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass , are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called

4200-469: The lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis , in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed. Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed or mown regularly without severe damage to

4275-403: The name "Rice", "Wildrice", "Wild Rice", or "Zizania". Because of its nutritional value and taste, wild rice increased in popularity in the late 20th century, and commercial cultivation began in the U.S. and Canada to supply the increased demand. In 1950, James and Gerald Godward started experimenting with wild rice in a one-acre meadow north of Brainerd, Minnesota. They constructed dikes around

4350-478: The past 2,000 years? "The use of wild rice by and its influence on prehistoric people in northeast Minnesota has led to much argument among archaeologists and paleoecologists". As an example, archaeologists divide human occupation of northeast Minnesota into numerous time periods. They are: the Paleo-Indian period from 7,000 years ago (5000 BC) extending back to an uncertain time after the glaciers receded from

4425-400: The plant. Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), stoloniferous , and rhizomatous . The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both C3 and C4 grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have

4500-440: The population. There were 529 households, of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.3% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 8.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 44.6% were non-families. 36.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

4575-502: The prehistoric exploitation of wild rice by humans, including: 1) the Anishinaabe, 2) so-called proto-Anishinaabe who may have later transformed into this culture from an earlier form, 3) other indigenous groups who exist today such as the Sioux people, and 4) archaeological-categorized cultures from the Initial and Terminal Woodland periods whose living lineages today are more difficult to identify. A seminal 1969 archaeological study indicated

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4650-420: The prehistoric nature of indigenous wild rice harvesting and processing through radiocarbon dating, putting to rest argument made by some European-Americans that wild rice production did not begin until post-contact times. Researchers tested clay linings of thermal features and jigging pits associated with parching and threshing of the plant. But a more precise dating of the antiquity of human use of wild rice and

4725-629: The relatively short time span of about 4 million years. According to Lester Charles King , the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more slowly acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in relatively more soil creep . There are about 12,000 grass species in about 771 genera that are classified into 12 subfamilies. See

4800-528: The rice field of Szarvas. Manchurian wild rice ( Chinese : 菰 ; pinyin : gū ), gathered from the wild, was once an important grain in ancient China. It is now very rare in the wild, and its use as a grain has completely disappeared in China, though it continues to be cultivated for its stems. The swollen crisp white stems of Manchurian wild rice are grown as a vegetable , popular in East and Southeast Asia . The swelling occurs because of infection with

4875-427: The same botanical tribe Oryzeae . Wild-rice grains have a chewy outer sheath with a tender inner grain that has a slightly vegetal taste. The plants grow in shallow water in small lakes and slow-flowing streams ; often, only the flowering head of wild rice rises above the water. The grain is eaten by dabbling ducks and other aquatic wildlife. Three species of wild rice are native to North America: One species

4950-412: The seagrasses are members of the order Alismatales . However, all of them belong to the monocot group of plants. Grasses may be annual or perennial herbs , generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference): The stems of grasses, called culms , are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the nodes , where

5025-592: The seeds into the canoe. One person vans (or "knocks") rice into the canoe while the other paddles slowly or uses a push pole. The plants are not beaten with the knockers, but require only a gentle brushing to dislodge the mature grain. Some seeds fall to the muddy bottom and germinate later in the year. The size of the knockers, as well as other details, are prescribed in state and tribal law. By Minnesota statute, knockers must be at most 1 in (2.5 cm) diameter, 30 in (76 cm) long, and 1 lb (450 g) weight. Several Native American cultures, such as

5100-530: The site for wild rice processing through these time periods by different cultures. For example, archaeologists often associate Sandy Lake pottery with the Sioux people, who were later displaced by the Anishinaabe and possibly other Algonquian migrants. Archaeologists often associate Selkirk pottery with the Cree people, an Algonquian group. An examination of the pollen sequence at Big Rice indicates that wild rice existed in "harvestable quantities" 3,600 years ago during

5175-464: The site from the Initial and Terminal Woodland periods. Specifically, researchers analyzed ceramic rimsherds of Laurel pottery from the Initial Woodland period and Blackduck, Sandy Lake and Selkirk pottery styles from the Terminal Woodland period. Each pottery type had wild rice seeds associated with it in the soil layers of archaeological deposits. These soil layers were not contaminated with pottery from other eras. This suggests intensive exploitation of

5250-593: The soil stratigraphy in archaeological excavations today. Such historical records from the post-contact period in the Lake Superior region focus on Anishinaabe harvesting and processing techniques. Archaeological investigations of wild rice processing from the American era, before and after the creation of federal Indian reservations, also provide information on the loss of traditional harvesting areas, as 1800s fur trader and Indian interpreter Benjamin G. Armstrong wrote about outsiders "who claimed to have acquired title to all

5325-519: The southeastern United States, it is about 1,500 years later that they became evident in the Midwest". After European contact, indigenous wild rice processors generally abandoned ceramic vessels in favor of metal kettles. The Initial Woodland period in northeast Minnesota marks the beginning of the use of pottery and burial mound building in the archaeological record. The Initial Woodland also experienced an increase in indigenous population. One hypothesis

5400-455: The swamps and overflowed lakes on the reservations, depriving the Indians of their rice fields, cranberry marshes and hay meadows". Despite the close association of the Anishinaabe and wild rice today, indigenous use of this food for subsistence also predates their arrival in the Lake Superior region. The Anishinaabe today were part of a larger Algonquian group who left eastern North America on

5475-466: The tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown , and the type genus Poa described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus . The term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα (póa, "fodder") . Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms . They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung ( coprolites ) have been found containing phytoliths of

5550-464: The wild in New Zealand and is considered an invasive species there. The genomes of northern and Manchurian wild rices have been sequenced. There appears to be a whole-genome duplication after the genus split from Oryza . The species most commonly harvested as grain are the annual species: Zizania palustris and Zizania aquatica. The former, though now domesticated and grown commercially,

5625-430: Was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.81. The median age in the city was 44.8 years. 22.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.8% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.1% were from 25 to 44; 28% were from 45 to 64; and 21.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,202 people, 532 households, and 311 families living in

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