Zizania latifolia, known as Manchurian wild rice (Chinese: 菰; pinyin: gū), is the only member of the wild rice genus Zizania native to Asia. It is used as a food plant. Both the stem and grain are edible. Gathered in the wild, Manchurian wild rice was an important grain in ancient China.: 165  A wetland plant, Manchurian wild rice is now very rare in the wild, and its use as a grain has completely disappeared in Asia, though it continues to be cultivated for its stems.: 165  A measure of its former popularity is that the surname Jiǎng (simplified Chinese: 蒋; traditional Chinese: 蔣), one of the most common in China, derives from this crop. Source: Wikipedia (en)