Glutinous Rice Root

[Aliases]

Nuogan Tou, Nuogen Xu.

[Source]

The dried roots with short residual stems of glutinous rice (Oryza sativa Linn.), a plant of the genus Oryza in the grass family.

[Original Plant]

Glutinous rice is an annual tufted herb, up to 1 m tall; culms erect, hairless. Leaf blades flat, linear-lanceolate, slightly rough, 30-60 cm long, 6-10 mm wide; ligule membranous, long and conspicuous. Panicle loose, 15-30 cm long; branches numerous, long and ascending; spikelets oblong, 6-8 mm long, laterally compressed, keeled, pubescent, awned or awnless; glumes extremely reduced, appearing as crescent-shaped traces at the apex of the spikelet stalk; the lemma of the sterile floret nearly equal in length, lanceolate, about 1/4-1/3 the length of the spikelet, the palea reduced; in the fertile floret the palea resembles the lemma, with 6 stamens; styles short. Caryopsis oblong, flattened on both sides, dark yellow or yellowish brown when mature. It is a hygrophytic herb. Widely cultivated in the eastern, central, southern and southwestern provinces and regions of China. Mostly cultivated in tropical and temperate regions of Asia.