Wild Rice of Madagascar Collected in 1985 and 1988

During the periods from August to September in 1985 and from May to June in 1988, the writer had trips in Madagascar for collection of the wild and cultivated rice species. During the trips, 60 strains of wild rice, Oryza longistaminata CHEV. et ROEHR., were collected, and many populations of them were observed. Their localities and habitats were reported briefly. From the analyses of grain characters of the unhusked grains, average values and the standard deviations in the whole strains were found to be 8.06mm±0.62, 2.28mm±0.19, 1.53mm±0.11, 3.56±0.22, 5.29±0.31 and 1.49±0.08 in length, width, thickness, ratios of length to width, of length to thickness, and of width to thickness, respectively. Most of the data showed the larger values in strains collected in 1985 than those of strains collected in 1988. In the standard deviations of each strain, i.e., those showing intra-population's variations, average values and the standard deviations in the whole strains were found to be 0.42±0.13, 0.14±0.05, 0.10±0.03, 0.27±0.08, 0.41±0.13 and 0.13±0.04 in the same order, respectively. It was noticeable that the whole characters showed the larger values in 1988 than those of 1985 and of the whole of African countries. Basing on the analyses of the data in the field survey, morphological, genetical and ecological characters, geographical, ecotypic and varietal differentiations could be discussed and concluded in the future