It is a small annual grass distributed throughout the warmer areas of the world to about 50 degrees latitude.

Eleusine indica is closely related to Eleusine coracana (finger millet or African finger millet), and the diploid E. indica is likely an ancestor of the allotetraploid E. coracana.

Seeds of E. indica are edible and are sometimes used as a famine food, but yields are low.

Eleusine indica performs C4 photosynthesis and therefore can grow in hot climates and in the hotter months of the temperate zone.

Though usually considered an annual, it may survive for more than a year in climates not subject to frost.