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Coix lacryma-jobi L.
Synonym
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Coix agrestis
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Family
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Poaceae
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Local name
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English
- Job's
tear grass
Malayalam – Poochakal
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Flowering and fruiting period
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July-March
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Distribution
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Tropical
Africa; introduced elsewhere
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Distribution in Kerala
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All
Districts
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Habitat
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Marshy
areas
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Endemic/Exotic
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Exotic
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Uses
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The
hard-shelled pseudocarps are used as beads for making rosaries, necklaces and
other objects.
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Key
Botanical Characters:
Robust
annual herbs. Culms 30-120 cm high, tufted; nodes glabrous. Leaves linear-oblong,
cordate at base, margin scaberulous, acuminate at apex; sheaths to 6 cm long,
glabrous; ligules ovate, membranous. Inflorescence terminal and axillary
peduncled, false spikes, 3-8 cm long, consisting of one female spikelet
completely enclosed in a globose or ovoid basal cupule like bract. Male
spikelets 2 or 3, exerted from the mouth of cupule, elliptic or
elliptic-lanceolate. Lower glume ovate-elliptic, 2-keeled, winged on keels.
Upper glume elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate. Lower floret male. Upper floret
male or barren. First lemma oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, hyaline. Palea
elliptic-lanceolate or lanceolate, 2-keeled. Stamens 3, anthers 3-4 mm long.
Second elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate; hyaline. Palea elliptic-lanceolate,
hyaline. Stamens 3; anthers 3-5 mm long. Female spikelets globose or ovoid,
bony, shining white or grey. Lower glume ovate-oblong, acute. Upper glume
ovate. Lower floret female or barren. Upper floret female. Caryopsis 5-7 mm,
subglobose, furrowed in the middle.
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