Ophiopogon japonicus or Dwarf Mondo Grass is a species from the Asparagaceae family originating from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), Vietnam, India, and the Philippines. The genus name comes from the Greek words ophis (meaning snake) and pogon (meaning beard). This plant is often cultivated as a medicinal plant, and is also grown as an ornamental plant for its grass-like tufts of leaves, serving as a ground cover. Its tuberous roots are edible and consumed as a famine food. In China, its roots are not only used as food but also often used as a substitute for ginseng.

Dwarf Mondo Grass can be found growing in shady places in lowlands and foothills, forests, mossy woods, dense scrub in ravines, moist and shaded spots on slopes, and along rivers and cliffs. It grows well in full sun or partial shade in well-drained sandy loam soil. Dwarf Mondo Grass is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental plant for freshwater aquariums, but since it is not a true aquatic plant, it can survive underwater for several months before dying. Although it is tolerant of temperatures around 20 °C when dormant outdoors in normal soil, when kept fully submerged, it requires a water temperature of 18–25 °C.

• Root: Aromatic, sweet, and mucilaginous stolons, fibrous, large with tuberous roots. The stolons are creeping and slender; the roots are quite thick, usually with a tuberous section near the center or tip.

• Leaves: Simple, basal, sessile, linear, generally about 15–50 cm long and 2–4 mm wide, 3–7 parallel veins, serrated leaf margin. The leaves are dark green above and grayish pale underneath.

• Flower: Solitary or paired, usually pendant-like, with a 3–4 mm pedicel. The 6-lobed tepals are white or pale purple, lanceolate, about 5 mm long and 2 mm wide. Staminal filaments are very short; anthers are about 2.5–3 mm long and lanceolate. The style is narrowly conical, medium-thick, widening at the base. Inflorescence emerges from the leaf axils, 1–20 cm long, with a few to more than 10 flowers with lanceolate white bracts.

• Fruit: Blue-black berry, subglobose to ellipsoid-globose, pea-sized, 5–9 mm in diameter.

• Propagation: Through seeds and division or separation of clumps.

Sedative, treats dry cough, sore throat, insomnia, diabetes, constipation, diphtheria, disorders related to cardiovascular diseases, aids in the healing of mouth ulcers, stimulates breast milk production in nursing mothers, and reduces fever. It has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory activity.

• Homoisoflavonoid (ophiopogonanone C, ophiopogonanone D, ophiopogonone C, ophiopogonanone E, dan ophiopogonanone F), sesquiterpene glycoside (ophioside A), monoterpene glycoside (ophiopogonol), spirostans (ophiogenin), ophiopogonol, minyak atsiri, steroidal saponins.