Alyce Clover: Spotting This Bean Family Weed in Rainfed Rice
Alyce clover is a small legume weed that grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. It has oval leaves, red flowers and yellowish pods, and it shows up in fields that dry out between rains. This page shows how to spot it, what it takes from your palay, and how to stop it before it seeds.
What Is Alyce Clover?
This weed belongs to the bean family, like mani and mungo. Farmers know it as banig usa, mani manian or maramani, depending on the place. The name mani manian hints at peanut, and in fact both plants come from the same family. Alyce clover is not a true clover, though. In the Philippines, it grows in rainfed lowland rice fields, where the soil does not stay under water all season.
As an annual, it lives for one season and spreads by seed. Its stems first lean out, then rise as they grow. Its yellowish pods hold the seeds that start the next generation. So any plant left to ripen in the field adds new seed to the soil for the following crop. When the field stays flooded, standing water keeps many of these seeds from sprouting.
| Name | Alyce clover |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Alysicarpus vaginalis |
| Family | Papilionaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Banig usa, mani manian, maramani |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Alyce Clover
Look for a low plant whose stems lean out and then turn upward. The stems branch, feel stout and have no hairs. Each leaf is a single oval blade, usually heart shaped at the base and rounded at the tip, with a tiny point. Turn a leaf over and you will feel soft hairs underneath. As a broadleaf weed, its leaves have netted veins. The flowers usually show red petals with two yellow stripes at the base, and the pods turn yellowish.
- Stems that lean out first and then curve upward, stout and smooth with no hair.
- Single oval leaves, usually heart shaped at the base and rounded with a tiny point at the tip.
- Soft hairs you can feel when you rub the underside of each leaf.
- Small red flowers marked with two yellow stripes near the base of the petals.
- Yellowish pods forming along the stems once flowering ends.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Alyce clover is a low plant, but it still takes a share of what your palay needs. It competes for water and fertilizer, and its leaves shade the soil and the base of young rice hills. The harm runs highest early in the season, when the rice is small and slow to cover the ground. Thick patches also hide insects, rats and other pests near the crop.
If plants ripen in the field, their seeds can get mixed with harvested grain and lower its quality. In rainfed fields that dry out between rains, this weed has an easier time, since no standing water holds it back.
How to Control Alyce Clover
- Hand weed while plants are young and still lean on the ground. Older plants grow stout stems and take more effort to pull.
- Pull every plant before the yellowish pods ripen, and take plants with pods out of the field so the seeds stay off the soil.
- Where you can, keep water standing in the field after planting. This low legume prefers soil that dries out, so a steady flood holds it back.
- Clear the weed from levees and nearby dry ground too, since plants there can drop seed back into the paddy.
What to Do at Each Age of Your Rice
- 0 to 5 days: keep the soil saturated. Use a pre emergence herbicide only if the field had many weeds last season.
- 6 to 10 days: hand weed in transplanted rice. In direct seeded rice, this is the window for an early post emergence spray.
- 11 to 20 days: keep water in the field, weed by hand or with a rotary weeder, and let Azolla and the Altica beetle help. Spray only if those fail.
- 21 to 30 days: top up the water and keep weeding. Spray only if weeding fails.
- 31 to 40 days (transplanted rice): hand weed. A spray this late is only a rescue.
- After any post emergence spray, bring the water back within 1 to 3 days at 3 to 5 cm and hold it for 4 to 5 days. Keep young rice above it.
Active Ingredients That Work on Broadleaves
If water and weeding cannot hold alyce clover down, choose an active ingredient that works on broadleaves at the age of your rice. Each active ingredient in it is in a herbicide registered in the Philippines for rice. Shop by the ingredient on the label, never by the brand. If your field also has other kinds of weeds, the weed control helper in anee.io finds the ingredients that cover all of them.
| Rice age (days after planting) | Transplanted rice (lipat tanim) | Direct seeded rice (sabog tanim) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 days | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Imazosulfuron, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Butachlor with safener |
| 6 to 10 days | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Pendimethalin, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Imazosulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Pendimethalin, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Pretilachlor plus pyribenzoxim, Penoxsulam, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 11 to 20 days | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Pyribenzoxim, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl |
| 21 to 30 days | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Carfentrazone ethyl | 2,4 D amine, 2,4 D IBE, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, MCPA, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Bentazone, Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl, Pyribenzoxim, Carfentrazone ethyl |
| 31 to 40 days | Metsulfuron methyl plus chlorimuron ethyl | Not listed for direct seeded rice |
Spray Safely
Use only herbicides registered with the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority, and follow the label on the pack: the rate, the timing, the water and the protective clothing. Switch herbicide groups between seasons so the weeds do not learn to survive them. Our guide to herbicides for rice explains the groups.
Keep Alyce Clover Out Next Season
- Plant clean, certified seed. Weed seeds mixed into the punla are the easiest way in.
- Keep the seedbed, the canals and the bunds free of weeds, so seed does not wash or blow into the paddy.
- Prepare the land well: flood, plow, let the weed seeds sprout, then kill them when you harrow. Level the field so water covers it evenly.
- Pull escapes before they flower and set seed, and carry them out of the paddy instead of leaving them on the bund.
- Keep the field clean after harvest and through the fallow, so fewer seeds build up in the soil for next season.
These steps work for every broadleaf weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Alyce Clover?
Take a clear photo of the leaf, the stem and the flower or seed head, then ask Anee, the smart farm technician in anee.io, in Tagalog or English. Anee tells you which weed it most likely is, its group, and what to do at the age of your rice. You can also put the weeding days on your cropping calendar, so the team knows when to go in.
anee.io keeps your weeding, spraying and water on one calendar, and Anee answers when a plant looks wrong.
- Weeding days on the season calendar
- Photos and notes for every lot
- Anee, the smart farm technician, in Tagalog or English
Questions Farmers Ask About Alyce Clover
What is alyce clover called in Tagalog and other local names?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
Can animals eat this weed?
Get Alyce Clover out of your field
With Libre + Anee, read the whole guide: how to tell it from your crop, and what to do and spray at every age of your crop.
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