Precious Germplasm
A paper on conservation genetics of wild rice in the journal Molecular Ecology has this to say about O. rufipogon: "This is the most agriculturally important but seriously endangered wild rice species."
In India, the Pallikaranai marshland contains the wild rice Oryza rufipogon, described by Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) as a "precious germplasm."
Read more about this topic: Oryza Rufipogon
Famous quotes containing the word precious:
“I do not see why, since America and her autumn woods have been discovered, our leaves should not compete with the precious stones in giving names to colors; and, indeed, I believe that in course of time the names of some of our trees and shrubs, as well as flowers, will get into our popular chromatic nomenclature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)