Common name: Job's tears

Job's tears or Chinese pearl barley, is a species of grass with a native range extending from temperate China to tropical regions of south-east Asia. Despite its Asian origins, Job's tears is closely related to maize or corn plant of the Americas, to which it bears some resemblance, especially in its juvenile stage. The plant is cultivated mainly for its one-seeded nut or grain for both food and medicine, with the main producing countries being India, Malaysia and the Philippines. Because of it ability to self-seed and grow in many soil types and conditions, it is now widely distributed throughout the tropics and is classified as a weed species in some regions. Job's tears is a perennial grass reaching a height of between 1 and 2 meters.

The stems and leaves have an appearance similar to that of the maize plant, with dark green, sword-shaped leaves, up to 50 cm long and 5 cm wide, growing in an alternate pattern up a central stalk. The plant has a clumping habit and in the wild forms large and dense clumps, particularly along waterways and other damp sites, such as marshes and wetlands. The flowers and then the seeds form on spike-lets emerging from the leaf joints.

The small to insignificant white to green-white colour flowers develop in spring, with male flowers borne above the female on the spike-let. The seed, which develop in late summer to autumn are about are 5 to 15 mm long, shiny and have a tear-drop shape, hence the use of the word 'tear' in the plants name. Seed may be white, grey, yellow, purple or brown in colour. Generally, there are two classes of Job's tear plants, one producing soft-shelled seed and the other hard-shelled. Soft-shelled varieties are cultivated for food and medicine and hard-shelled varieties for decorative ornaments, especially necklaces. The seed are of various colours, usually purple, white, yellow or brown [Edit]

Use: It is cultivated as a fresh fodder crop or for silage production and the grain of the cereal varieties can be ground for poultry feed. All parts of the plant are reported to have a crude protein content of around 8% of dry weight.

Climate: Has naturalized in Jamaica, from sea level up to 600 meters elevation, but is reported to grown up to 2000 meters elevation in tropical Africa.

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