Paspalum scrobiculatum

Paspalum scrobiculatum Linn. Mant. 1767.

Vernacular name of sinhala : Amu , Karal – Amu.

Perennial grass with stems 60 – 90 cm high, tufted, erect or suberect, rather stout, lesfy from the base upword; leaves bifarious, erect or subrect, 15 – 22.5 cm long, 0.2 – 0.8 cm cm broad, flat, finely acuminate, mid – vein slender, margins : scaberulous; sheath 10 – 20 cm long,compressed, loose, mouth hairy ligule very short, membranous; spikes 2 – 6, sessile, usually distant and spreading,2.5 – 15 cm long,rhachis filiform or broad and concave,margins ciliolate; spikelets closely imbricate in 2-3 series, sessile or shotly pedicelled from nearly orbicular to sub ovoid, obtuse or subacute,biconvex, glabrous, very rarely or sparsely hairy,dring brown; glumes3,palea orbicular, tumid,thickly coriaceous, strongly inflexed below the middle forming2, broad, membranous auricles that embrace the grain; stamen 3, hypogynous, one at the base of the flowering glume and one opposite each vein of the palea, anthers of two paralled cells; ovary superior, unilocular with a single basal erect ovule, style 2, free,stigmas purple, plumose exserted from near the top of the spikelet, grain biconvex, free but tightly enclosed within the hardened glume and palea.


Uses.

This plant is styptic and useful for inflammation and diseases of the liver. The expressed juice of the stem is applied on corneal opacity. The roots and rhizomes are employed in decoction as an alternative in child birth. The camphor – like substance in the internodes of the stem (which glows in the dark) is used in the treatment of snake – bite poisoning.