Botany
Tufted and glabroous plant with fibrous roots, 10 to 70 cm high. Leaves are shorter than the culm, 2 to 3 in a culm. Blades are linear, 2 to 5 mm wide. Umbels are 3 to 30 cm in diameter, rays few to many, long or short. Spikes are loosely spicate. Spikelets are numerous, lax and crowded, yellow or brown, 3 to 10 mm long. Glumes are 6 to 20, obovate, hardly imbricate, about 1.2 mm long, 3- to 5-angled, oblong ovoid.

Distribution
Common paddy weed in open and wet places throughout the Philippines.

Properties and constituents
Considered tonic, stimulant, stomachic and astringent.

Parts used
Tubers, leaves.

Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of ground tubers used for fevers.
Among the Mundas ot Chota Nagpur, tuber is ground together with Cyperus rotundus and taken for fever.
In India, plant used as tonic, stimulant, stomachic and astringent.

Studies
• Larvicidal / Mosquito Control: Study of leaves of six Cyperus species of varying ages were tested on the larvae of yellow fever mosquito. Only Cyperus iria was found to have significant levels of JH III (juvenile hormone III) and suggests a potential for a safe, inexpensive and readily available larvicidal.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
The lethal effects of Cyperus iria on Aedes aegypti / A M Schwartz, S M Paskewitz, A P Orth, M J Tesch, Y C Toong, W G Goodman / ournal of the American Mosquito Control Association. 01/04/1998; 14(1):78-82.