[4] Ischaemum rugosum is a resilient annual that inhabits marshes and other wet habitats, growing in loose clumps to heights of 10–100 cm.

[5][6] The genus Ischaemum L. takes its name from the Latin ischaemon (Greek ischo “to restrain” and haima “blood”), as recorded by Pliny the Elder to describe an herb used to stop bleeding.

[6] The species grows in water, wet grasslands, moist river banks, and drainage ditches, and is important to grazing animals in the regions to which it is native.

[7] The species was first described formally by the British botanist Richard Anthony Salisbury in 1791, in his publication Icones Stirpium Rariorum Descriptionibus Illustratae.

[2] Since the species inhabits such a wide native range from tropical Africa to southern Asia, it goes by a myriad of regional names as well (e.g. fovo in Sierra Leone, amarkarh in parts of India, môm u in Vietnam, and ka-gyi-the-myet in Myanmar).

[11] Early molecular phylogenetic revisions of the Andropogoneae suggested its major lineages arose from a rapid evolutionary radiation, in which such case the circumscription of well-supported subtribes would be difficult, if not arbitrary.

[12] However, the most recent synthesis of morphological and molecular data presents a phylogenetic classification that recognizes the genus Ischaemum within subfamily Panicoideae, supertribe Andropogonodae, tribe Andropogoneae, subtribe Ischaeminae.

[1] However, its greatest economic impact has been as a noxious weed in vegetable and rice fields in countries including India, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil, Venezuela, and Malaysia.