Botany:
Lygodium flexuosum is a climbing or scrambling fern. Pinnae are pinnate, 15 to 25 cm long, and sometimes bipinnate in the lower part. Pinnules are stalked, finely serrate, otherwise entire lanceolate or more commonly lobed on both sides at the base, 4 to 10 cm long; the fertile pinnae are shorter than the sterile one. Spikes are 2 to 10 mm long. Spores are verruculose.

Distribution
Common and widely distributed, especially in open places in the Philippines.

Parts utilized
Roots and leaves.

Constituents
Plant yields antheridiogens, lygodinolide, O-P-coumaryldryocrassol, tectoquinone, kaempferil, kaemferol-3-beta-D-glucosdie, beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol as main constituents.

Properties
Considered antioxidant, anti-implantation, anti-ovulatory.

Uses
Edibility
In Nepal, during times of scarcity, Chitwan people use it as vegetable sustenance.
Folkloric
Roots and leaves used externally for ringworm and other skin ailments.
Elsewhere, plant is used in treatment of blenorrhagia.
In Indian traditional medicine, used for liver disorders.
The Maharashtra tribe in India smoke bidi made of roots for rheumatism and arthritis; also, fresh roots boiled with mustard oil used for massage. Bidi also smoked for bleeding gums, bad breath, sprains, scabies, rheumatism, as antifertility and abortifacient, for jaudice and wound healing.
In Nepal, plant ash used for herpes.
Others
• Animals: Plant fed to domestic animals to treat foot and mouth diseases.