Botany:
Perennial, dense, leafy grass, with short horizontal stems; creeping and branching below. Flowering stems are erect, 20-60 cm high. Leaves are short, linear-lanceolate, 3-10 cm long, 4-6 cm wide. Sessile spikeloet is very narrow, 3 mm long; callus is elongated, barbed; fourth glume is linear, acuminate, with a short and scabrid awn.

Distribution
A pest of a weed found throughout the Philippines in open places at low and medium altitudes.

Parts utilized
· Entire plant

Uses
Folkloric
· Decoction of root is used for diarrhea.
· Decoction of entire plant as a diuretic.
· Ashes of burned roots taken internally for rheumatism.
· In ancient Hindu medicine, one of several plants – curcuma longa, berberis asiatica, ocimum basilicum, trichosanthes dioica, azadirachta indica, among others, ground and mixed in equal proportion and applied over the body as an ointment for pruritus, skin eruptions, unticaria, and tumescence. Also mixed with other herbal plants as a purgative, pustulant and anodyne.

Availability
Wild-crafted. 

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
An Interpretation of Ancient Hindu Medicine / CHANDRA CHAKRABERTY