Rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cv. Nipponbare) seeds were sown in germinating boxes. At 30 days after germination, the seedlings were transplanted in a paddy field in Tsukuba, Japan ( ˜36°N ) and grown under normal conditions during the 2008 cultivation season. At 56 DAT, approximately 50% of rice plants in the field were at the stage of panicle initiation and at 58 DAT most plants examined were already in the early stage of panicle development indicating a complete reproductive transition. At 90 DAT, most of the rice plants in the field were at the stages of flowering and early stages of seed development corresponding to the ripening-stage transition.