In the categorization of monocotyledonous flowering plants, the Poaceae family stands out as the most significant global provider of food. Furthermore, they are positioned within the top five families of flowering plants with respect to both species diversity and abundance. They grow on all continents of the world except Antarctica in widely contrasting ecosystems and account for 24% of the Earth’s vegetation. Oryza is a plant genus within the Poaceae family, encompassing important food crops such as Oryza sativa (Asian rice) and Oryza glaberrima (African rice). The plants are both annual and perennial and grow as tall wetland grasses. Throughout the evolutionary history of rice, perspectives related to eco-genetic settings of cultivated rice and its wild ancestor provide crucial information underplaying differences in various morphological features that transited with the progress of time. The progenitor wild rice harboured traits that empowered its survival in natural conditions, but they had little importance for human use and were not suitable for cultivation. There is significant phenotypic variation among rice cultivars empowered by domestication within the wide spectrum of ecosystems worldwide. Domestication of rice increased the size of the organs that are consumed and carry economic importance. The phenotypic plasticity is typical to the plant, amenable to modification in response to variation of habitat. The plant generates reproductive structures like tillers and spikelets in abundance when conditions allow and sacrifices many of them first for lack of resources and second for survival under exigency of exposure to unfavourable conditions. The morphological resemblances and molecular research findings drawn from various cultivars of Oryza sativa show distinctive traits indicative of whole-genome duplication in all members. This gene duplication event appears to have taken place shortly before the emergence of the common ancestor. The perspectives related to eco-genetic settings of cultivated rice and its wild ancestor provide crucial information underplaying differences in various morphological features that transited with the progress of time.