348 articles
Japanese rice
Japanese rice: short-grain japonica Oryza sativa grown nationwide, staple of the Japanese diet. About 300 varieties planted; Koshihikari (1956) leads at 33.4%. Prices doubled in the 2024-25 shortage.
Jasmine rice (ข้าวหอมมะลิ)
Jasmine rice (ข้าวหอมมะลิ), officially Thai Hom Mali Rice, is Thailand's fragrant long-grain rice from varieties KDML105 and RD15, defined by law at 92% purity, 7 mm kernels, and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline aroma.
Job's tears
Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi, adlay, coix seed, 薏苡) is an Asian grass grown as a minor cereal, medicine, fodder, and bead plant; soft-shelled var. ma-yuen yields grain, hard-shelled var. lacryma-jobi yields ornamental beads.
Jollof rice
Jollof rice, also called thieboudienne, ceebu jen, benachin, or riz au gras, is a West African one-pot rice dish cooked in a fried tomato-onion-pepper base, originating with the Wolof people of Senegambia and fueling the Ghana-Nigeria "Jollof Wars".
Kasha
Kasha (каша): roasted buckwheat groats and the porridge made from them; in Slavic usage, porridge from any grain. Gluten-free pseudocereal staple of Russian and Ashkenazi cuisine, e.g. kasha varnishkes.
Khao soi (ข้าวซอย)
Khao soi (ข้าวซอย) is Northern Thailand's coconut curry egg noodle soup, the signature dish of Chiang Mai, brought by Yunnanese Muslim caravan traders via Burma, related to ohn no khao swe, ranked TasteAtlas #1 soup in 2022.
Khorasan wheat
Khorasan wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. turanicum, Kamut brand wheat) is a tetraploid ancient wheat from the Persian province of Khorasan, marketed under the KAMUT trademark and studied in clinical trials versus modern wheat.
Koeleria
Koeleria (hair grass, Junegrass) is a Poaceae grass genus published by Persoon in 1805, with tufted perennials, narrow leaves, and dense spikelike glistening panicles; about 75 accepted species across temperate and mountain regions, taxonomically difficult due to morphological plasticity and polyploidy.
Leersia
Leersia, commonly called cutgrass, is a genus of 18 accepted species of annual and perennial wetland grasses in the rice tribe Oryzeae, found worldwide and closely related to rice.
Leymus
Leymus (wild rye), a Triticeae grass genus separated from Elymus in 1848, with about 57 rhizomatous perennial species of temperate Northern Hemisphere steppes, dunes, and salt marshes; allopolyploid NsXm genomes, Ns from Psathyrostachys; includes forage grass Leymus chinensis.
Leymus chinensis
Leymus chinensis (羊草, yang cao, sheepgrass) is a perennial Triticeae grass dominating Eurasian steppe grasslands across northern China, Mongolia, and Siberia; a key forage with two ecotypes, used for fodder and grassland restoration.
List of rice cultivars
List of rice cultivars: named released varieties of Oryza sativa, from IRRI's IR8 (1966, first semidwarf, sd-1) to ICAR-IIRR's 253 Indian varieties, PhilRice NSIC zinc and Salinas lines, and TNAU releases.
Lolium multiflorum
Lolium multiflorum, Italian or annual ryegrass, a Poaceae bunchgrass native from Macaronesia to the Himalaya, grown worldwide for forage, silage, and cover cropping, and a major herbicide-resistant weed.
Lolium perenne
Lolium perenne, perennial ryegrass, is a Poaceae forage and turf grass native from Europe to the Himalaya, self-incompatible, wind-pollinated, optimal at 14-25 degrees C, drought-sensitive, and the most widely grown temperate grass.
Lolium rigidum
Lolium rigidum (rigid or annual ryegrass), Mediterranean annual grass and pasture species, is Australia's worst crop weed and the world's most severe herbicide-resistance case, with resistance to 11 sites of action and first glyphosate resistance in 1996.
Lolium temulentum
Lolium temulentum, darnel or darnel ryegrass, an annual Poaceae weed of cereal fields, toxic via fungal alkaloids, native to Macaronesia, North Africa and temperate Eurasia, never domesticated despite Neolithic co-occurrence with crops.
Loose smut
Loose smut, caused by Ustilago nuda in barley and U. tritici in wheat, is an internally seed-borne smut disease that replaces grain with wind-dispersed teliospores; controlled by certified seed and systemic fungicides.
Macaroni
Macaroni, known in Italian as maccheroni, is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes, made from wheat semolina or flour and water, associated especially with Naples and best known in macaroni and cheese.
Maize
Maize (Zea mays, corn), C4 cereal grass domesticated from teosinte in Mexico's Balsas valley ~9,000 years ago; world's largest grain crop (~1.25 billion tonnes), grown for feed, ethanol, and food; kernel types dent, flint, sweet, popcorn.
Maize diseases and pests
Maize diseases and pests are the pathogens and insects attacking maize, which lose about 22.5% of global yield, including rusts, tar spot, maize streak virus, and fall armyworm.
Makgeolli (막걸리)
Makgeolli (막걸리), also called takju, is Korea's milky, cloudy fermented rice wine made from rice, nuruk starter, and water, with 6-8% alcohol, live lactic acid bacteria, a Goryeo-era history, and the classic pajeon pairing.
Malting
Malting: controlled germination of cereal grains, chiefly barley (Hordeum vulgare), through steeping, germination, and kilning to produce malt for brewing, distilling, and food; quality measured by extract, diastatic power, and beta-glucan.
Maris Otter
Maris Otter is a two-row winter malting barley bred by G. D. H. Bell at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge (Proctor x Pioneer cross, 1965/1966), prized for low-nitrogen, malty cask-ale malt and still grown under contract in England.
Masa
Masa: dough from nixtamalized maize (lime-cooked corn), basis of tortillas, tamales, pupusas, arepas. Also masa harina, dehydrated masa flour (Maseca, Minsa). Alkaline cooking frees niacin and raises calcium 10–20x.
Megathyrsus
Megathyrsus, also called Panicum subgenus Megathyrsus, is a small C4 grass genus (Poaceae) established in 2003 by Simon and Jacobs, with four African species; its type species M. maximus (Guinea grass, syn. Panicum maximum) is a major tropical forage grass.
Megathyrsus maximus
Megathyrsus maximus, guinea grass (formerly Panicum maximum), is a tufted perennial Poaceae forage grass native to tropical and southern Africa, widely grown in tropical pastures and invasive in semi-arid subtropics.
Melica
Melica, commonly known as melic or melicgrass, is a genus of about 90 species of perennial grasses in the grass family Poaceae, found in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide.
Melinis
Melinis P.Beauv. (Natal grass genus, molasses grass, Melinis repens) is a genus of about 20-23 African and Arabian grasses in Poaceae, subtribe Melinidinae, published 1812; several species are forage or ornamental grasses and invasive weeds.
Melinis minutiflora
Melinis minutiflora (molasses grass, capim-gordura), an African perennial fodder grass of Poaceae, invasive in the Brazilian Cerrado and Hawaii; sticky, molasses-scented leaves, flammable biomass, suppresses tree regeneration, controlled by integrated fire-herbicide-manual management.
Milium
Milium (milletgrass) is a small genus of Poaceae grasses, published by Linnaeus in 1753, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere with six accepted species including the woodland grass Milium effusum.