Adlay

The plant travelled westwards long ago, through India. It is now found wild in Spain and Portugal, and there is a dwarf form, probably introduced by the Portuguese, in Brazil.

Varieties may have hard or soft seed coats. The hard-shelled kinds are very hard, and the grains have an attractively lustrous appearance. They have been used in many regions as beads, sometimes for rosaries, which is why ‘Job’s tears’ figure in their botanical name. (Naturally occurring round lumps of the shiny mineral chrysolite, similarly used, have the same name.)