Indica and japonica are the two main types of cultivated rice.
Tips
culture
Contrast with 粳稻 (japonica rice - short-grained, sticky, grown in the north). The split is so old that even the names are: 籼 has the 米 (rice) radical and 山 phonetic; 粳 also has 米 with 更 phonetic.
mistakes
籼 is read xiān, not shān or qiān. Some older dictionaries also list xiān; never use the homophonic 仙 reading.
