Oryza rufipogon is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. It is known as brownbeard rice, wild rice, and red rice. In 1965, Oryza nivara was separated off from O. rufipogon. The separation has been questioned, and now many sources consider O. nivara to be a synonym of O. rufipogon. O. nivara may be treated as the annual form of O. rufipogon.
It is native to East-, Southeast- and South- Asia. It has a close evolutionary relation to Oryza sativa, the plant grown as a major rice food crop throughout the world. Oryza nivara is a possible wild progenitor of cultivated rice. Both have an AA genome.