If you’ve never heard of Texas wild rice, you’re not alone. The plant’s obscurity is a consequence of its rarity. Endemic to Central Texas and listed as federally endangered, Zizania texana grows exclusively in a two-mile patch of the upper San Marcos River, a stretch of water that passes straight through the city that shares its name. Yet despite the plant’s presence nearby, most San Marcos residents I spoke to had never heard of it. And those who had were unable to tell me where it grows.This is not a condemnation of the people of San Marcos. Walking around my own hometown, I am regularly approached by tourists with questions that I am woefully unable to answer. (My mother calls this phenomenon “the ignorance of the…