Reyash is a principle crop of Trenoc agriculture, the perennial
plant’s starchy stem are harvested prior to flowering, and can
harvested up to three times a year in warmer and wetter temperate
regions.
Reyash shares a lot of common
morphology with Earth’s grasses and bamboos, with compartmented stems
filled with an edible starch rich pith, Each stem length sports a set of
two narrow elliptical leaves which are set alternately against other
stem leaf sprays when viewed down the stem. Each stem shoot sprouts from
one of the laterally traveling roots, and can grow up to a metre tall
before flowering. Flowering can occur as soon as 60 days after the shoot
surfaces above the soil. The flowering compartment is a modified stem
section which when ripe splits to firstly to reveal the plant’s sex
organs, and again secondly to release its downy seeds.
Reyash is harvested generally
three times a year, though in colder regions two crops may only be
obtained a year, the first crop is the winter’s and autumns growth
after the summer cutting. The stems are cut at ground level before the
flowering chambers develop too much, left later and the pith becomes too
bitter to eat. The plant will rapidly regenerate from the base and
subsequent cuttings are made as necessary as the stems begin to reach a
flowering stage.
Reyash enjoys a lot of
moisture and warmth, and under these conditions will provide the
greatest crops, however Reyash does not grow well in subtropical or
tropical regions, as it requires a cold winter to stimulate spring
growth, and also to encourage shoot formation on the roots. Reyash seed
can easily be collected from allowing a crop to flower. In modern times
the seed is collected by placing a thin horticultural fleece of the
seeding crop, and the downy seed become trapped in the fleece’s fibres,
the fleece is then cut up into strips and pegged to the ground where the
seed will germinate and grow. In addition to this collection process the
seed may need to be refrigerated to give better germination in warmer
climates.
Though Reyash is a perennial
plant each individual clump will become less productive after five years
or so, after this time the fields are then plowed to break up and reduce
the clumps, and therefore restore productivity, other times the crop is
burnt to the ground and the soil dug over and resown.
Reyash has relatively few
pests, though it is grazed upon by the larger herbivores (and is often
grown as a fodder crop as consequence). The major problematic pests to
the Reyash crop are a fungus like organism, which proliferates in the
leaf axils and spoils the starch (Queykar) this particular pest is
controlled by culturing the Reyash with a symbiotic bacterium that lives
on the stems waxy cuticle and destroys any fungal infestation (bacterial
spores are usually mixed with seed stock before sowing). There are a
number of insect like pests which have been readily controlled by slight
modifications of the symbiotic bacteria (developing larvae in the Reyash
can not become sexually mature as the bacteria release an inhibitory
compound in the surface cuticle).
Though Reyash in its raw state is suitable for a fodder crop and
can be used for rearing infant Trenoc, it is more commonly milled into
coarse fragments, and the pith separated from the vegetable matter by
use of large shallow water tanks, where the pith can be skimmed off the
top, the process can be repeated many times to extract a very pure
starchy pith. The purified pith can be dried and subsequently milled to
yield a much finer flour, or be compressed in its wet state to create
cakes of coarser pith which on cooking provide a rice like material.
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