It is annual and herbaceous, and can be found in marshes, swamps, rice fields and water courses at low elevations.

The flowers are small, about 1.2 millimeters long, greenish or purplish, and borne in dense axillary clusters.

The leaves are acrid and find application in folk medicine for the treatment of rheumatic pain, as laxative, rubefacient and external remedy for ring worm (Kirtikar, 1972).

This plant was found to possess hypothermic, hypertensive, antiurolithiasis, antibacterial and CNS depressant activities (Dhar et al., 1973; Bharathi and Srinivasan, 1994; Al-Sharma and Mitschar, 1979).

Recent studies have demonstrated that the ethanol extract from Ammannia baccifera possess antisteroidogenic (Ramaiyan Danapal et al., 2005), antioxidant and hepato-protective activities (Lavanya et al., 2009).