Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)

Jali or Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is a species of plant in the Poaceae, annual shrub, many clumps, erect and large stems, 1-3 meters high, white powdery coating, roots rough and difficult to uproot, grows wild in forests and fields agriculture, several varieties are cultivated for food sources and craft materials.

C. lacryma-jobi has alternating leaves, ribbon-shaped strands, 8-100 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, pointed tip, base hugging stem, flat edge, rough surface like paper and main bone protruding on the back of the leaf.

Flowers come out of leaf axils and branching ends, are grain-shaped and have stalks. The fruit has a long stalk, oval in shape, green or white or blue or purple and hard skin when it is old.

Leaves are used for fiber. The widely cultivated varieties have soft fruit for pulp, while the hard wild varieties are used for beads on necklaces.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Tribe: Andropogoneae
Subtribe: Coicinae
Genus: Coix
Species: Coix lacryma-jobi
Varieties: Coix lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi, Coix lacryma-jobi var. maxima

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