Oryza coarctata Roxb.

A coastal plant which, according to Blatter & McCann, forms dense mats covering miles of flat land at the mouth of the Indus River within tidal influence, being submerged at high tide.

Perennial with extensive creeping rhizomes. Culms up to about 2 m high, smooth, hard and polished. Leaf-blades up to 40 cm long and 12 mm wide, smooth, coriaceous with spinulose margins; ligule a narrow ciliate rim up to 1 mm long. Panicle 10-20 cm long, narrow, the branches erect. Spikelets narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, 12-15 mm long including the awn, glabrous, deciduous, obliquely articulated with the pedicel; sterile lemmas subulate, 2.54 mm long; fertile lemma boat-shaped with a large projecting wing on the back, cuspidate with a stout hard glabrous awn about 4 mm long.

Distribution: Southern Asia: Pakistan (Indus Delta), India (Ganges Delta and Godaveri Dist., Madras) and Burma (Irrawaddy and Tenasserim Deltas).