barnyard grass, crab grass, crow’s-foot grass, goose grass, goosefoot grass, Indian goose grass, landgrass, mangrass, rapoko grass, wild finger millet, wire grass, yardgrass, Eleusine indica

Eleusine indica (Linn.) Gaertn is widely distributed in Pakistan (Sind, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); roadsides. Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Taiwan, Tianjin, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang,  tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. This pantropical, annual weed is a forage grass and is used for Chinese medicine.
Crab or Crowfoot Grass is considered in some regions to be a good fodder grass. It is highly esteemed as a pasture grass in Australia and North America.  The root-systems are deep and numerous, therefore it is not easy to eradicate. This is one of the common grasses growing everywhere in Taiwan

 

Floral Description:

According to Flora of Pakistan

Tufted annual; culms 15-85 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades usually folded, 5-35 cm long, 2.5-6 mm wide. Inflorescence digitate, composed of 1-10(17) slender ascending spikes 3.5-15 cm long, a few spikes often set below the main apical cluster. Spikelets 3-9-flowered, elliptic, 4.6-7.8 mm long; lower glume 1.1-3.2(3.9) mm long. upper glume 1.8-4.7 mm long; lemmas lanceolate, 2.4-4.8 mm long, acute to subacute.

According to Flora of China

Annual. Culms tufted, erect or geniculate at base, 10–90 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous or tuberculate-pilose; leaf blades flat or folded, 10–15 × 0.3–0.5 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface tuberculate-pilose; ligule ca. 1 mm, membranous, at most sparsely ciliolate. Inflorescence digitate, racemes (1–)2–7, linear, ascending, 3–10 × 0.3–0.5 cm, one raceme often set below the rest. Spikelets elliptic, 4–7 mm, florets 3–9; glumes lanceolate, scabrid along keel; lower glume 1-veined, 1.5–2 mm; upper glume with small additional veins in the thickened keel, 2–3 mm; lemmas ovate, 2–4 mm, keel with small additional veins, acute; palea keels winged. Grain blackish, oblong or ovate, obliquely striate with fine close lines running vertically between the striae.

According to Flora of Taiwan:

Annuals; culms tufted, sheaths laterally compressed and keeled; ligule about 1mm long. Inflorescence of 1 to several digitate spikes, spikes 3-9 cm long. Spikelets more than 4-flowered, about 5 mm long; glumes keeled, membranous, lanceolate, 1-nerved, unequal; lower glume 2 mm long; upper glumes 3 mm long; the lowest floret about 3 mm long; lemma membranous, keeled and winged, semi-ovate in side view, 1-nerved, as long as the floret; palea membranous, 2-keeled, shorter than the lemma; anthers 3, about 0.6 mm long. Utricle ovate, about 1.5 mm long, ventrally grooved,finely marked with comb-like wrinkles.

 

Common Names:

in English: barnyard grass, crab grass, crow’s-foot grass, goose grass, goosefoot grass, Indian goose grass, landgrass, mangrass, rapoko grass, wild finger millet, wire grass, yardgrass
in Arabic: negil
in Benin: gamatori, gomateri, tchouan, torohundo
in Burkina Faso: targanga
in Burundi: umureza, urfanfu
in Central African Republic: gbahele, ndili

in Congo: imbanziala, kalungulungu ka motanga, kimbandza, kimbandzia, kimboundia, ludiuy, tolungulungu ta motanga
in East Africa: bek, ekitu, enguruma, kasibauti, malulu, orutaratari, ribanchore
in Ghana: akpenté, nsensan, tangana, tanganga
in Guinea-Bissau: albali, blikatchor, butchuque
in Guinea: binbirima, bintirima, diandialé, diandiali, gbénéwanlou, gbénéwoulou, gbintima, sékédi, siguiri, siguirigni, tarassa, tayondo, tièmbi, tiguilini, trassa
in Ivory Coast: assumoamata, diridire, essouéma, essuema, kama, kpedé, kwedé, n’tema, n’tena, siganzi
in Madagascar: tsiavotraombilahy, tsimpignipigny, tsimpipiny, tsipihipihina
in Mali: gondnema, guentneman, nassi gargagué, so pegou
in Niger: aghaeji, aghaji, bari kengéy, diliaré, hak’orin karé, najim, tababé, tuji, tujy
in Nigeria: angolo, berison lei, berisonlei, berrison lei, ciiyaawar tuujii, elade, ele, ese kannakanna, ese kannkanna, gbagi, gbegi, gbegidina, gbegin, ichite, ile, jighir, sargande, seragade, seragalde, syesyè, tnatna, tuji, tuujii
in Senegal: budi darate, budi dukhot, gondirima, gondnema,
guentneman, mondon darate, nassi gargagué, ratam fambé, vodvod

in Sierra Leone: dutasa, gbantama, lutasa, ngetae wuli, ngetaewuli, ngete wu, ngete wulo, ngete wulo ha, ngetewi, ngetewuli, ngitwa, sigiri, taiyondo, tese, tigbiri na, tigirinyi, tunkun de
in Southern Africa: Indiese osgras, jongosgras, jongospol, osgras, ospol, sterkpol; lia-ngoetsi (Sotho); umnyalakhobe (Zulu); unyankomo (Ndebele)
in Tanzania: kifungambusi, malulu, ndule
in Togo: adon’doulé, tchama
in Upper Volta: garga, gatan, tar ganga, targanga
in Bhutan: cholop, shade jhar, kongpu ngoon, daday, kodho jhar
in Cambodia: choeung kras
in India: balraja, bilwagaja, chaodhara, chichora, gadha charwa, gadha chichora, gadha mandwi, ganjalada hoo, ghada mandwi, ghod-chabba, gurchawa, gurra gadi, hakki kaalina hullu, hecchulli hullu, hechhuli hullu, jharnpriya kodu, jhingri, jhinjhor, kaadu raagi, kaaruchodi, kakariya, karuchodi, kevuru, khurd, khurd mendi, kumtung, kuncappul, kuror, lijhar, madanya, madhulika, mal-ankuri, mandial jori, mahar nachni, makaraita, makraila, mal ankuri, malankur, malankuri, malkantari, malnkuri, mandavi, mandla, mandwa, medwari, mirwari, nachon, nandia, nandimukhi, natno, phanghad, ran nachani, rannachani, thippa raagi, thippa ragi, thoseria pandhad, in Indonesia: tetegu
in Japan: o-hi-shiba
in Laos: nia pak kouay
Malayan name: rumput sambau, sambau
in Okinawa: ibafusa, shipu-kusa
in Papua New Guinea: hiroi, iquazi, kiroi
in Philippines: apidan, bakis-bakisan, barangan, bikadbikad, bila-bila, bugtusan, dinapaiuk, gagabutan, kabit-kabit, palagtiki, paragis, parangis, parangis-sabungan, sabungsabungan, sambali
in Sri Lanka: belatana, walmal kurakkan
in Thailand: ya pak khok, ya pak khwai, ya tin ka, ya tin nok, yaa paak khok, yaa paak khwaai, ya phak khwai, yaa phaak khwaai, yaa teenkaa, yaa teennok, yaa tinkaa, yoe khum
in Vietnam: co bac, co chi tia, co dang, co man trau, co viron trau, tranh tam thao
in Hawaii: manienie ali’i

Scientific Names:

• Agropyron geminatum Schult. & Schult.f. 
• Cynodon indicus (L.) Raspail 
• Cynosurus indicus L. 
• Cynosurus pectinatus Lam. 
• Eleusine distans Link 
• Eleusine glabra Schumach. 
• Eleusine gonantha Schrank 
• Eleusine gouinii E.Fourn. 
• Eleusine inaequalis E.Fourn. 
• Eleusine indica subsp. indica   
• Eleusine indica var. major E.Fourn.
• Eleusine indica var. monostachya F.M.Bailey 
• Eleusine indica var. oligostachya Honda 
• Eleusine japonica Steud. 
• Eleusine macrosperma Stokes 
• Eleusine marginata Lindl. 
• Eleusine polydactyla Steud. 
• Eleusine rigidifolia E.Fourn. 
• Eleusine scabra E.Fourn. 
• Juncus loureiroana Schult. & Schult.f.Leptochloa pectinata (Lam.) Kunth 
• Triticum geminatum Spreng.

Medicinal Uses:

Cyanogenic or hydrogen cyanide toxic, can be poisonous to stock, has been recorded as causing the deaths of calves and sheep. Plant used by women in childbirth, pound the leaves and give the juice to drink to promote the discharge of the afterbirth. Whole plant uprooted, washed and chewed for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery; entire plant boiled and used to treat sprains, fevers. Roots with pepper and ginger given to cure snakebite; roots infusion for diarrhea. Leaf paste of Uncaria macrophylla mixed with the rhizome of Eleusine indica applied externally in bone fracture. Infusion of macerated leaves drunk as a remedy for urine retention, infusion eases vaginal bleeding. Leaf infusion is used for dysentery.