[Zizania aquatica var. aquatica (Annual wild rice)]
I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
Tall and slender
zizania panicle
waving on the shore.
Annually we
gather wild rice with grateful
awe, like Chippewas.
By the water's edge
the zizania stands still,
spires empty of grain.
July 22. Zizania, a day, with a handsome light-green panicle a foot or more long, a long slender stem, and corn-like leaves frequently more than an inch wide. July 22, 1854
July 24. The zizania, some days . . . At least two kinds of grass as tall as the zizania have preceded it along the river. July 24, 1853
July 27 Zizania scarce out some days at least. July 27, 1856
August 6. Interesting here and there the tall and slender zizania waving on the shore, with its light panicle eighteen inches or more in length. August 6, 1854
August 12. Zizania several days. August 12, 1860
August 14. The zizania now makes quite a show along the river. August 14, 1859
August 15. Wild [rice], apparently in prime. This is quite interesting and handsome, so tall and loose. The lower, spreading and loosely drooping, dangling or blown one side like a flag, staminate branches of its ample panicle are of a lively yellowish green, contrasting with the very distant upright pistillate branches, suggesting a spear with a small flag at the base of its head. It is our wild grain, unharvested. August 15, 1858
August 16. Zizania aquatica, Indian or Canadian rice, or water oats, like slender corn. How long? August 16, 1852
August 18. The zizania on the north side of the river near the Holt, or meadow watering-place, is very conspicuous and abundant. August 18, 1854
August 20. The zizania is pretty abundant in the river, in rear of Joseph Hosmer's . . . Very many water-plants – pontederias, lilies, zizania, etc., etc. – are now going to seed, prepared to feed the migrating waterfowl, etc. August 20, 1854
August 24. The zizania is the greater part out of bloom; i. e., the yellowish - anthered (?) stamens are gone; the wind has blown them away. August 24, 1858
September 2 We are dwelling amid these wild plants still, we are eating the huckleberries which lately only the Indian ate and dried, we are raising and eating his wild and nutritive maize, and if we have imported wheat, it is but our wild rice, which we annually gather with grateful awe, like Chippewas. September 2, 1856
September 3. Zizania still. September 3, 1858
September 5. I find some zizania grains almost black. September 5, 1854
September 15. The grain of the wild rice is all green yet. September 15, 1859
September 16. See no zizania seed ripe, or black, yet, but almost all is fallen. September 16, 1860
September 24. The zizania ripe, shining black, cylindrical kernels, five eighths of an inch long. September 24, 1852
September 25. The zizania fruit is green yet, but mostly dropped or plucked. Does it fall, or do birds pluck it? September 25, 1858
September 30. The wild rice is almost entirely fallen or eaten, apparently by some insect, but I see some green and also black grains left. September 30, 1859
October 25. The sheen on the water blinds my eyes. The zizania stands still, with its slender spires empty of grain, by the water's edge. October 25, 1852
See also:.
Northern woodlands, New England’s Wild Rice ("The season for gathering rice is short, about 10 to 14 days at the beginning of September.")
Vermont Fish and Wildllife Department, Wild Rice Marsh ("Flowers are borne in a large panicle at the top of the plant, with male flowers on the lower spreading branches of the panicle and the female flowers at the top. The dark grain, or caryopsis, of wild rice matures in the early fall")
US Forest Service, Annual Wildrice
Illustration by Adelaide Tyrol
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Zizania (wild rice)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2026
