Common Name:

General Information

Fuirena umbellata is a sturdy perennial, grass-like plant with solitary, erect culms growing from short, creeping rhizomes. The plant can be 50 - 110 cm tall[, ].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. It is sometimes used as a green manure in rice fields and for soil stabilization.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Widespread in subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

Habitat

Common in open wet locations, sometimes in secondary forest; at elevations up to 1,800 metres[]. Areas of permanent shallow water, swamps, pools, ditches, marshy lake shores, even in brackish sites[, ].

Properties

Weed Potential	Yes
Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Perennial
Height	0.80 m
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The plant is found as a weed in rice fields[]. The basal node of the flowering culm is swollen into a bulbil, so that the tufted plant resembles a shallot (Allium cepa var). The plant spreads by means of these bulbils, making it a difficult weed to eradicate[].

Edible Uses

The tubers are edible[]. This report probably refers to the bulbil at the base of the flowering culm[].

The plant is burnt and the ashes used as a salt[, ].

Medicinal

Newborn babies are washed in an infusion of the leaves[].

Agroforestry Uses:

When growing as a weed, the plant is ploughed in as a green manure in rice fields[].
The plant may serve as a mud-binder to resist tidal scouring[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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