Japonica rice


Japonica rice, sometimes called sinica rice, is one of the two major domestic varieties of Asian rice. Japonica rice is extensively cultivated and consumed in China, Japan, and Korea, whereas in most other regions is the dominant type of rice.

Characteristics

Japonica rice grains are rounder, thicker, and harder, compared to longer, thinner, and fluffier indica rice grains. Japonica rice is also stickier due to the higher content of amylopectin, whereas indica rice starch consists of less amylopectin and more amylose. Japonica rice plants are shorter than indica rice plants.

Classification

Japonica rice can be classified into three subgroups, 'temperate japonica', 'tropical japonica', and 'aromatic'. Temperate japonica is cultivated in East Asia, while tropical japonica is in Indonesia, Madagascar, and also the Americas where it was brought to with slave trade.

Cultivars

In Korea, rice is called by non-interchangeable names. Ssal, byeo, or mo are the names used depending on the growth stages of rice. Ssal refers to peeled grains of rice and rice in a generic sense. Rice plants are called byeo, while rice seedlings grown to be transplanted to paddies are called mo. Transplantation of mo is called monaegi, and rice fields are called non. Since other fields are called bat, the generic term for "agricultural field" in Korean is nonbat, which literally means "rice field and other fields". There is even a Korean-coined Chinese character for rice field: . Since the paddy fields for rice are irrigated lands, the character is a compound ideograph made of and . The Sino-Korean term jeondap is used as a synonym of nonbat. Cooked rice is called bap, juk, nurungji, and so on according to cooking methods.