Botany:
· A coarse, rambling or erect, distantly branched annual herb, 0.5 to 2 m high.
· Leaves are oblong-ovate to elliptic or obovate, 6 to 15 cm long, pointed at both ends, more or less hairy, though often nearly smooth.
· Flowers are green and about 5 cm in length. Sepals 4 or 5, filaments connate at the base, the stamens and staminodes square toothed or fimbricate, pale purplish. Ovary oblong, 1-ovuled; flowers unisexual. The spikes are rigid, elongated and 10 to 15 cm long. Buds point upwards but when the flowers open, they spread out from the sides.
· Seeds oblong, brown and 2 to 3 mm long. Fruits utricles, oblong or ovoid, indehiscent.

Distribution
Weed found throughout the Philippines at low and medium altitudes.

Parts utilized
Entire plant.
Collect from May to October.
Rinse, macerate, sun-dry.

Properties
Sweet tasting, slightly cooling. Antipyretic-diuretic. Aids lymphatic circulation, strengthens musculatured, improves blood circulation.

Folkloric uses
· Cold with fever, heat stoke with headache, malaria, dysentery.
· Urinary tract lithiasis, chronic nephritis, edema.
· Rheumatic arthralgia (joint pain)
· Dosage: use 30 to 60 gms dried material in decoction.

Availability
Wild-crafted.