Narrative
Banks heads 93 days after emergence and is 112 cm in plant height. On a relative straw strength scale (0 = very strong, 9 = very weak) Banks, Francis, Wells, LaGrue and Cocodrie rated 4, 3, 3, 3 and 2, respectively. Rough rice grain yields of Banks are one of the highest in the Arkansas Rice Performance Trials (ARPT). In 20 ARPT tests (2000-2003), Banks, Francis,Wells, LaGrue and Cocodrie averaged yields of 9677, 9828, 9727, 9243, and 8669 kg ha-1 (120 g kg-1 (12%) moisture), respectively. Milling yields (mg g-1 whole kernel:mg g-1 total milled rice) at 120 mg g-1 moisture from the ARPT, 2000-2003, averaged 630:710, 650:710, 630:730, 620:700 and 660:710 for Banks, Francis, Wells, LaGrue and Cocodrie, respectively. Banks is resistant to common rice blast (Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.) races IB-1, IB-49, IB-54, IC-17, IG-1 and IH-1 under Arkansas conditions, with ratings of R, MR, R, MR, R, and R respectively, using the standard disease R = resistant, MR = moderately resistant, MS = moderately susceptible, S = susceptible and VS = very susceptible to disease. Banks is susceptible to the blast race IB-33 and VS to race IE-1k. Banks is rated MS to sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani K|hn), VS for kernel smut (Tilletia barclayana (Bref.) Sacc. and Syd. in Sacc.), S to stem rot (Magnaporthe salvinii (Cattaneo) R. Krause and R. K. Webster), MR to leaf smut (Entyloma oryzae Syd. and P. Syd.), R to brown leaf spot (Cochliobolus miyabeanus (Ito and Kuribayashi in Ito) Drechs. ex Dastur), MR to narrow brown leaf spot (Cercospora oryzae Miyake), and S to false smut (Ustilaginoidea virens (Cooke) Takah). Banks is S to damage caused by rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax). Banks rates MS to straighthead, a physiological disorder. Plants of Banks have erect culms, dark green erect leaves, and glabrous lemma, palea, and leaf blades. The lemma and palea are straw colored with colorless apiculi, and some short tip awns on the lemma at maturity. Individual milled kernel weights of Banks, Francis, Wells, LaGrue, and Cocodrie, averaged 17.1, 16.7, 19.3, 17.9, and 17.9, respectively, in the ARPT. Banks is nonglutinous, nonaromatic, and covered by a light brown pericarp. It has an average apparent starch amylose content of 228 g kg-1 and an intermediate gelatinization temperature (70 - 75o C), as indicated by an average alkali (17 g kg-1 KOH) spreading reaction of 3 to 5.