Wild Red Rice
Oryza rufipogon
Found in disturbed wetlands, with seasonal ponding. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Florida edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?
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At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 2 Florida counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Who uses this plant?
16CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL
Genus host records with ranges including FL · Oryza
- Ancyloxypha numitorLeast Skipper
- Anicla infectaGreen Cutworm Moth
- Dargida diffusaWheat Head Armywotm Moth
- Elasmopalpus lignosellaLesser Cornstalk Borer
- Feltia repletaReplete Dart
- Helicoverpa zeaCorn Earworm Moth
- Lerodea eufalaEufala Skipper, Gray Skipper, Rice Leafroller
- Leucania humidicolaSugarcane Budworm Moth
- Mocis latipesSmall Mocis, Striped Grass Looper
- Panoquina ocolaOcola Skipper, Long-Winged Skiiper
Show all 16
- Polites othoSouthern Broken-Dash, Broken-Dash Skipper
- Spodoptera albulaWhite-Spotted Armyworm, Gray-Streaked Armyworm
- Spodoptera frugiperdaFall Armyworm Moth
- Urbanus proteusLong-Tailed Skipper, Bean Leaf Roller
- Chilo plejadellus
- Leucania latiuscula
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
14BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Oryza
- Agelaius phoeniceusRed-winged Blackbird
- Agelaius tricolorTricolored Blackbird
- Anas acutaNorthern Pintail
- Anser albifronsGreater White-fronted Goose
- Anser caerulescensSnow Goose
- Antigone canadensisSandhill Crane
- Cardinalis cardinalisNorthern Cardinal
- Dendrocygna bicolorFulvous Whistling-Duck
- Dolichonyx oryzivorusBobolink
- Molothrus aterBrown-headed Cowbird
Show all 14
- Porzana carolinaSora
- Quiscalus quisculaCommon Grackle
- Rallus elegansKing Rail
- Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- Poaceae
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Florida rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| FL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Atlas of Florida Plants
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications