Herb: Jungle Rice


Latin name: Echinochloa colona


Synonyms: Panicum colonum


Family: Gramineae (Grass Family)



Edible parts of Jungle Rice:

Seed - cooked. Used as a millet. The seed can be cooked whole or ground into a flour and used as a mush or porridge. Young plants and shoots - raw or cooked. Eaten raw with rice.

Description of the plant:



Plant:
Annual


Height:
100 cm
(3 1/4 foot)

Flowering:
July to
September

Habitat of the herb:

Waste places, cultivated fields and ditches in southern N. America where it is naturalized. A weed of damp places and irrigated fields in China.

Propagation of Jungle Rice:

Seed - sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer. A sowing in situ in late spring might also succeed but is unlikely to ripen a crop of seed if the summer is cool and wet.

Cultivation of the herb:

Waste places, cultivated fields and ditches in southern N. America where it is naturalized. A weed of damp places and irrigated fields in China.

Medicinal use of Jungle Rice:

None known

Known hazards of Echinochloa colona:

None known

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future.