Saltrice

Saltrice is a grass whose seeds are commonly harvested as a cereal crop by coastal civilisations. It has been domesticated and is planted and harvested annually in temperate areas, but is commonly cultivated as a ratoon crop in the tropics. It is not closely related to true rice, but rather is closer to a reed.

Biology
Saltrice is a grass plant which grows in dense thickets in salt wetlands. It has a long, fleshy stem which hardens into wood as the plant grows. When mature, a large, feathery head grows with many large, edible seeds per head. Seeds are released to float on coastal tides, leading to large swathes of suitable coasts becoming thickly covered with saltrice. These floating seeds also let saltrice wash across oceans, allowing this plant to spread to almost all tropical and temperate coasts.

Domestication
Saltrice is easily harvested by sickle, cutting the stems close to the waterline. When threshed, the stems form durable and waterproof thatch, while the seeds are easily scattered back into the water for the next season. The roots and lower portion of the harvested plant are left to rot and fertilize the shallows.

Bawa consume saltrice, with the Hui'leia harvesting wild saltrice when fleets come across it, while the  Rahi Vasa Company cultivates it in a more ordered manner. Neither group particularly enjoy the grain or the young shoots, as they are rather tasteless to bawa palettes. They do use it to make flour for breads and dough.

Saltrice is common across the Hui'leian Islands, Kana Vasa Islands and along the coasts of Othus because of this and other coastal cultures take advantage of the swathes that grow from seeds washed far along coasts.