QuickCheck: Do rice plants have to be grown in water?

AS WITH all plants, rice needs water in order to thrive. However, when it comes to rice, the impression that most folk have of the plant is that it has to be grown in water at least knee-deep.

We've all seen that watercolour landscape painting (usually titled "a kampung life" or something to that effect) where rice plants are grown in flooded paddy fields framed by picturesque mountains and suspiciously small wooden houses.