Rice · Rice · Short entry
Venere
Italy's first black rice: a semi-long, black-pericarp cultivar registered in 1997 by SA.PI.SE. of Vercelli from a cross between an Asian black rice and an Italian white rice. Usually sold as wholegrain; when cooked it smells of freshly baked bread.
Profile
RisoItaliano describes Venere as born in 1997 at Vercelli from a cross between an Asian black rice and an Italian white rice, through the work of the Chinese geneticist Wang Rue Xeng, and grown in Piedmont and Sardinia. The grain is semi-long and semi-tapered, with no pearl. The Ente Nazionale Risi sheet records a caryopsis of 5.96 × 2.73 mm (ratio 2.18), a coloured pericarp and 16.6% amylose. The sheet marks the variety non-aromatic, while the 2026/2027 register and RisoItaliano describe it as aromatic.
How it connects
Rice
- related Black rice
- parent of Ermes
