Code
COXLJ
Growth form
Grass
Biological cycle
Annual
Habitat
Terrestrial
COXLJ
Growth form
Grass
Biological cycle
Annual
Habitat
Terrestrial
🗒 Synonyms
| synonym | Coix lacryma L., nom. superfl. |
| synonym | Coix ovata Stokes, nom. superfl. |
| synonym | Coix pendula Salisb., nom. superfl. |
| synonym | Lithagrostis lacryma-jobi (L.) Gaertn. |
| synonym | Sphaerium lacryma Kuntze, nom. superfl. |
🗒 Common Names
| Creoles and pidgins; |
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| French |
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| Malagasy |
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| Other |
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📚 Overview
Description
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
Global description
Coix lacrima-jobi is a large annual herbaceous plant, reaching up to 150 cm tall; thatch erect, large, highly branched towards the top; linear or linear lanceolate leaves, often cordate at the base, acute at the apex, 10 to 50 cm long and 2.5 to 7 cm wide, glabrous. Paniculate inflorescence composed of numerous partial inflorescences, held on long stalks, fasciculate at the upper nodes; each is formed at the base with a female globular spikelet, surrounded by a spherical or oval spathe and topped with many male spikelets. The male or female spikelets are biflorous. Male spikelets have 2 male flowers or only the male lower flower and sterile upper flower. Female spikelets have a sterile lower flower and a fertile upper flower.
General habit
Coix lacrima-jobi is a robust, annual, erect grass, profusely branched stem in the upper part and measuring 0.75 to 3 m high.
Underground system
Fibrous roots
Culm
Culm is erect, cylindrical, robust, highly branched in the upper part and glabrous.
Leaf
The leaves are simple and alternate. The ligule is membranous truncate. The lamina is linear to linear lanceolate, plan, 10 to 50 cm long and 25 to 70 mm wide. It is rounded to cordate at the base and in acute at the apex. The faces are glabrous, the margin is scabrous.
Inflorescence
Paniculate inflorescence, composed of numerous partial inflorescences held by long peduncles, and fibrous at the upper nodes. Each is formed at the base of a female spikelet accompanied by two pedicels, surrounded by a sub-spherical or ovoid spathe that gradually hardens at maturity into a large, very hard, bright pearl, gray or bluish black in color, up to 6 to 12 mm in diameter. At the end of the spathe emerges a long, dense, male spike, 1.5 to 4 cm long, made of elliptical, glabrous, muticous, green spikelets, with a winged keel towards the top, reaching 8 to 10 mm long, dorsally flattened; these spikelets are inserted by 2 or 3, one pedicellate, the other or the other two are sessile.
Flowers
Male or female spikelets are biflorous; male spikelets have either 2 male flowers, or only lower flower is male and upper flower is sterile. Female spikelets have a sterile and reduced lower flower while the upper flower is fertile.
Grain
The grain remains included in the involucre, forming a false, sub-globular, grooved fruit, about 5 mm long and glossy gray in colour.
Coix lacrima-jobi is a large annual herbaceous plant, reaching up to 150 cm tall; thatch erect, large, highly branched towards the top; linear or linear lanceolate leaves, often cordate at the base, acute at the apex, 10 to 50 cm long and 2.5 to 7 cm wide, glabrous. Paniculate inflorescence composed of numerous partial inflorescences, held on long stalks, fasciculate at the upper nodes; each is formed at the base with a female globular spikelet, surrounded by a spherical or oval spathe and topped with many male spikelets. The male or female spikelets are biflorous. Male spikelets have 2 male flowers or only the male lower flower and sterile upper flower. Female spikelets have a sterile lower flower and a fertile upper flower.
General habit
Coix lacrima-jobi is a robust, annual, erect grass, profusely branched stem in the upper part and measuring 0.75 to 3 m high.
Underground system
Fibrous roots
Culm
Culm is erect, cylindrical, robust, highly branched in the upper part and glabrous.
Leaf
The leaves are simple and alternate. The ligule is membranous truncate. The lamina is linear to linear lanceolate, plan, 10 to 50 cm long and 25 to 70 mm wide. It is rounded to cordate at the base and in acute at the apex. The faces are glabrous, the margin is scabrous.
Inflorescence
Paniculate inflorescence, composed of numerous partial inflorescences held by long peduncles, and fibrous at the upper nodes. Each is formed at the base of a female spikelet accompanied by two pedicels, surrounded by a sub-spherical or ovoid spathe that gradually hardens at maturity into a large, very hard, bright pearl, gray or bluish black in color, up to 6 to 12 mm in diameter. At the end of the spathe emerges a long, dense, male spike, 1.5 to 4 cm long, made of elliptical, glabrous, muticous, green spikelets, with a winged keel towards the top, reaching 8 to 10 mm long, dorsally flattened; these spikelets are inserted by 2 or 3, one pedicellate, the other or the other two are sessile.
Flowers
Male or female spikelets are biflorous; male spikelets have either 2 male flowers, or only lower flower is male and upper flower is sterile. Female spikelets have a sterile and reduced lower flower while the upper flower is fertile.
Grain
The grain remains included in the involucre, forming a false, sub-globular, grooved fruit, about 5 mm long and glossy gray in colour.
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
No Data
📚 Nomenclature and Classification
No Data
📚 Natural History
Life Cycle
Life cycle
Annual
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Madagascar: Coix lacryma-jobi blooms during much of the rainy season, from February to June.
Mayotte : Coix lacryma-jobi flowers and fruits all year round.
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
Morphology
Growth form
Tuft plant with narrow leaves
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Grass or grass-like
Grass-like leaf type
Grass leaf
Type of prefoliation
Rolled leaf
Latex
Without latex
Stem section
Round
Root type
Fibrous roots
Ligule type
Ligule membranous large
Hollow or solid stem
Hollow stem
Leaf attachment type
with graminate sheathing
Fruit type
Grain of grasses
Lamina base
sheathing grass-like auriculate
Lamina margin
scabrous
Lamina apex
attenuate
Upperface pilosity
Glabrous
Lowerface pilosity
Glabrous
Simple leaf type
Lamina linear
Lamina section
flat
Lamina Veination
one
Parallel
Flower color
Green
Inflorescence type
Spike
Digitate racemes
Stem pilosity
Glabrous
Life form
Grass
Ecology
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
Coix lacrima-jobi likes moist forest areas, river banks or swampy stations in the village perimeters.
Comoros: This species is observed at low altitude in abandoned wastelands north of Ngazidja but also at high altitude in fallow land after tomato and taro crops.
Madagascar: Coix lacrima-jobi likes cool stations with deep, fertile soils (river) alluvial type or ferralitic with humus, in sunny places or lightly shaded. It is a weed in fallow on the banks of canals and rivers, edges of crops at the bottom slope in the East and the wet North of the island. It is common in post-cropping fallow following mountain rice crops in humid forest zone. It is found in extensive or semi-intensive cropping systems like rice or corn or sugar cane, in the humid regions of Madagascar: East Coast, North plain.
Mauritius: This species is very common in very humid places (> 2500 mm of rain annually).
Mayotte: Coix lacryma-jobi is an exotic species, commonly naturalized on the banks of rivers, in certain very wet meadows and sometimes cultivated for its grains.
Reunion: Species present on the edge of rainforest on the east coast of the island from 0 to 1000 m altitude (White wood forest, banks of Grand Etang).
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
No Data
📚 Habitat and Distribution
General Habitat
Habitat
Terrestrial
Agroforestry
Marshland
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Origin
Coix Lacryma-jobi is native to tropical Asia.
World distribution
This species is widespread in all warm regions: Central and South America, Southern USA, tropical Africa, islands of the South-west Indian Ocean, India, China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Coix Lacryma-jobi is native to tropical Asia.
World distribution
This species is widespread in all warm regions: Central and South America, Southern USA, tropical Africa, islands of the South-west Indian Ocean, India, China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
Description
Geographical distibution
Madagascar
Reunion Island
Comoros
Mauritius
No Data
📚 Occurrence
No Data
📚 Demography and Conservation
Risk Statement
Local harmfulness
Madagascar: C. lacryma-jobi is a weed species rare and scarce in crops. It mostly form small settlements in post-cropping fallow and on the hedge of cultures and channels. It does not present any particular difficulty. C. lacryma-jobi remains a fairly localized species with a particular preference for deep, fertile soil in wet areas (plains of the East Coast, North floodplains). It can be locally abundant in perennial crops, such as cassava and sugar cane plantations poorly maintained in the alluvial plains of the East Coast.
South Africa: Coix lacrima-jobi is a naturalized species in open humid areas (marshes and forest edge) in the provinces of the Transvaal and the Cape.
Reunion: Species of fallow or disturbed humid forest areas; it is not present in the cultures.
Madagascar: C. lacryma-jobi is a weed species rare and scarce in crops. It mostly form small settlements in post-cropping fallow and on the hedge of cultures and channels. It does not present any particular difficulty. C. lacryma-jobi remains a fairly localized species with a particular preference for deep, fertile soil in wet areas (plains of the East Coast, North floodplains). It can be locally abundant in perennial crops, such as cassava and sugar cane plantations poorly maintained in the alluvial plains of the East Coast.
South Africa: Coix lacrima-jobi is a naturalized species in open humid areas (marshes and forest edge) in the provinces of the Transvaal and the Cape.
Reunion: Species of fallow or disturbed humid forest areas; it is not present in the cultures.
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
No Data
📚 Uses and Management
Uses
Food: The seed is used as food and this plant is still cultivated for grain in parts of India and Viet Nam.
livestock feed: It is a good forage.
Crafts: The false fruits are used to make necklaces, bracelets, rosaries or other.
Medicinal: This species also has medicinal properties well known: diuretic activity, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor. The sap of the stem is used against insect bites and enters the treatment of eye irritation (Ghana).
livestock feed: It is a good forage.
Crafts: The false fruits are used to make necklaces, bracelets, rosaries or other.
Medicinal: This species also has medicinal properties well known: diuretic activity, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor. The sap of the stem is used against insect bites and enters the treatment of eye irritation (Ghana).
Wiktrop
| Attributions | Wiktrop |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
Management
Madagascar: This species is controlled with the use of small hand tools such as angady and machetes in cassava cropping systems, sugar cane or fruit crops.
Thomas Le Bourgeois, Randriamampianina Jean Augustin
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
No Data
📚 Information Listing
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
Thomas Le Bourgeois
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
References
- D. MEREDITH. The grasses and pastures of south Africa.
- Bosser, J. (1969). Graminées des paturages et des cultures à Madagascar. Paris, France, ORSTOM.
- C.E. HUBBARD, AND R.E. VAUGHAN. The grasses of Mauritius and Rodrigues.
- Poilecot, P. (1995). Les Poaceae de Côte-d'Ivoire. Genève, Suisse, Conservatoire et jardin botaniques de Genève.
- Gibs Russell, G. E., L. Watson, M. Koekemoer, L. Smook, N. P. Barker, H. M. Anderson and M. J. Dallwitz (1991). Grasses of Southern Africa. An identification manual with keys, descriptions, distributions, classification and automated identification and information retrieval from computerized data. South Africa, National Botanic Garden - Botanical research Institute.
- Barthelat, F. 2019. La Flore illustrée de Mayotte. Meze, Paris, France, Collection Inventaires et Biodiversité, Biotope – Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. 687 p.
- https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30100521-2
Information Listing > References
- D. MEREDITH. The grasses and pastures of south Africa.
- Bosser, J. (1969). Graminées des paturages et des cultures à Madagascar. Paris, France, ORSTOM.
- C.E. HUBBARD, AND R.E. VAUGHAN. The grasses of Mauritius and Rodrigues.
- Poilecot, P. (1995). Les Poaceae de Côte-d'Ivoire. Genève, Suisse, Conservatoire et jardin botaniques de Genève.
- Gibs Russell, G. E., L. Watson, M. Koekemoer, L. Smook, N. P. Barker, H. M. Anderson and M. J. Dallwitz (1991). Grasses of Southern Africa. An identification manual with keys, descriptions, distributions, classification and automated identification and information retrieval from computerized data. South Africa, National Botanic Garden - Botanical research Institute.
- Barthelat, F. 2019. La Flore illustrée de Mayotte. Meze, Paris, France, Collection Inventaires et Biodiversité, Biotope – Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. 687 p.
- https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30100521-2
Images
Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Coix%2520lacryma-jobi
Thomas Le Bourgeois
| Attributions | |
| Contributors | |
| Status | UNDER_CREATION |
| Licenses | CC_BY |
| References |
There is content in another language. Please click here to read it. (Français)
No Data
🐾 Taxonomy
| Root | Root |
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Phylum | Tracheophyta |
| Class | Liliopsida |
| Order | Poales |
| Family | Poaceae |
| Genus | Coix |
| Species | Coix lacryma-jobi L. |
📊 Temporal Distribution
📷 Related Observations
