3.1. Life cycle of the rice plant

 3.1. Life cycle of the rice plant

 

   The life cycle of the rice plant begins with the fertilization and subsequent development of the embryonic plant.  In rice culture, the life cycle generally starts when the embryonic plant germinates into a seedling. The seedling grows into a mature plant and produces the seeds for the next generation. In the tropics, rice varieties  complete their life cycle within 100 to 210 days. The usual average is between 100 to150 days. The development of the rice plant may be divided into three phases. These are the vegetative phaes from seed gemination to panicle initiation, the reproductive phases from panicle initiation to flowering, and ripening phases from flowering to full maturity. However these main phases may be subdivided into physiologically distinct stages .