Botany
Tayam is an erect or sub-erect perennial undershrub or creeping woody rootstock, with slightly angular and slender branches, clothed upwards with short, adpressed, grey hairs. Leaves usually have three leaflets, but single leaflets may be found on the lower stems of mature plants. Leaflets are green, hairy above, and thinly clothyed with adpressed hairs beneath; the end one obovate-oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters long, the side ones smaller. Racemes are terminal and lateral, 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters long. Pods are 1.2 to 2 centimeters long.

Distribution
- In thickets and open grasslands at low and medium altitudes from northern Luzon to Mindanao.
- Also occurs in India, Sri Lanka, Malacca, Malaya, Zanzibar, China, Japan and Polynesia. Also found in tropica Africa.

Properties
- Tonic.
- Most Desmodium species are considered antiinflammatory.

Parts used
Leaves, roots.

Uses
Folkloric
Boiled roots used as poultice for sore breasts.
Plant decoction considered tonic and useful for coughs.
In West Java, roots and leaves used for women's problems.
Santals use a plant preparation for fainting and convulsions.
Others
Practical and resilient long-term grass-legume pasture.

Availability
Wild-crafted.