Balloon Vine: How to Stop This Climbing Weed in Rice Fields
Balloon vine is a climbing broadleaf weed that grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. Its papery, lantern shaped fruits make it easy to recognize, but by then it may already be climbing your crop. This page shows how to spot it early and how to remove it before it covers your palay.
What Is Balloon Vine?
This vine belongs to the soapberry family, the same family as rambutan and lychee. Farmers know it by many names: alalayon, bangkolon, lubo lobohan, parol parolan, paltu paltukan, parya aso and paspalya. Names like parol parolan and lubo lobohan point to its fruit, which looks like a small lantern or balloon. Balloon vine grows in rainfed lowland rice fields.
As an annual, it lives for one season and spreads by seed. Its long stems climb by wrapping thin tendrils around anything nearby, rice stems included. Each balloon shaped fruit holds a few round black seeds, and each seed carries a small white spot shaped like a heart. When the papery fruits dry and split, the seeds drop into the field for the next crop.
| Name | Balloon vine |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Cardiospermum halicacabum |
| Family | Sapindaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Alalayon, bangkolon, lubo lobohan, parol parolan, paltu paltukan, parya aso, paspalya |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Balloon Vine
Look for a thin vine with long, slightly hairy stems that climbs over the rice or nearby plants. The leaves grow one at a time along the stem on slender stalks. Each leaf splits into three, and each of those parts splits into three again, so you see many small leaflets with toothed, sometimes lobed edges. Like other broadleaf weeds, it has netted veins. Tiny white flowers come first, then the papery, lantern shaped fruits.
- Thin vines climbing up and over rice plants, using small curling tendrils to hold on.
- Long, slightly hairy stems that tangle between the rice hills.
- Leaves divided into three, then three again, with toothed, sometimes lobed leaflets.
- Very small white flowers that you can easily miss among the leaves.
- Papery, green, lantern shaped fruits that puff up like little balloons.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Balloon vine competes with your palay for light, water and fertilizer, but its climbing habit makes it worse than most broadleaf weeds. Its stems wrap around rice tillers and spread a layer of leaves over the crop. That shade slows the rice below. Heavy vines can also pull rice stems down, which makes harvest harder and can spoil grain that touches wet ground.
Its dry fruits and seeds can also get mixed into the harvest. Besides that, tangled vines give rats and insects cover inside the crop. Since it climbs, the longer you wait, the harder it gets to pull out without breaking the rice.
How to Control Balloon Vine
- Cut and pull the vine while it is still small, before it climbs the rice. Unwind it gently so you do not break the tillers.
- Remove plants before the lantern shaped fruits dry and split, and carry them out of the field in a sack.
- Clear the vine from fences, levees and nearby bushes too, since plants there can drop seed 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 balloon vine 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 Balloon Vine 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 Balloon Vine?
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 Balloon Vine
What is balloon vine called in Tagalog?
How do I control this vine in my rice field?
Why should I pull a vine that looks so harmless?
Get Balloon Vine 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.
The account is free, no credit card.
