Benghal Dayflower: How to Spot and Control It in Rainfed Rice
Benghal dayflower is a fleshy, creeping weed with small blue flowers that grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. It spreads by seed and by broken stem pieces, so careless weeding can make it worse. This page shows how to spot it early and how to control it for good.
What Is Benghal Dayflower?
This weed belongs to the dayflower family. Farmers call it alikbangon, gatilang or kulasi. Benghal dayflower grows in rainfed lowland rice fields, mainly on soil that stays moist but has no standing water. Each flower opens for only a day, and that habit gives the dayflower its name.
Most plants live as annuals, though some carry on as perennials. It also spreads in two ways. It sets seed, and its fleshy stems take root again when broken pieces lie on moist soil. This plant can even form small flowers and seeds below the ground, on short underground stems. That is why it can return after hand weeding that looked thorough.
| Name | Benghal dayflower |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Commelina benghalensis |
| Family | Commelinaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Alikbangon, gatilang, kulasi |
| Life cycle | Annual, sometimes perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds and vegetative fragments |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Benghal Dayflower
Look low. The stems feel fleshy and juicy, and they creep along the ground before they turn upward. The leaves grow one at a time along the stem, widest in the middle and shaped like a broad oval. It sits in the broadleaf group because its leaves look wide and flat, but its veins run side by side, unlike most broadleaves. The blue flowers have three or four petals, two or three large and one small.
- Fleshy, juicy stems creeping along the ground before they bend upward.
- Broad oval leaves, widest in the middle, growing one at a time along the stem.
- Small blue flowers with two or three large petals and one small one.
- Leaf veins running side by side, even though the leaves look wide like a broadleaf.
- New shoots rising from stem pieces left behind after weeding.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Benghal dayflower spreads low and wide, so it covers the soil between rice hills and takes the water and fertilizer your palay needs. Its creeping stems crowd young rice, and the fleshy mats keep the ground shaded and damp. Insects, rats and other pests find shelter under them.
The bigger cost lies in how hard it is to clear. Pulled stems that stay on the field can root again. Some plants also live on past one season. So a field with dayflower may need several rounds of weeding, which adds to your labor cost every crop. Its seeds can also mix with harvested grain.
How to Control Benghal Dayflower
- Never leave pulled stems lying on moist soil. Collect every piece in a sack and carry it out, since fleshy fragments root again.
- Dig out the base of the plant with a small tool instead of just pulling the top, because it can form seeds on short underground stems.
- Dry the pulled plants fully on a tarp or hard ground away from the field before you compost them.
- Check the field again one to two weeks after weeding and remove any new shoots while they are small.
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 Benghal dayflower 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 Benghal Dayflower 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.
- Plow and harrow well, and rake out the runners, roots or pieces you turn up. A small piece left in wet soil can grow a new plant.
- 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 Benghal Dayflower?
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 Benghal Dayflower
What is Benghal dayflower called in Tagalog?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
Why does dayflower keep coming back after weeding?
Get Benghal Dayflower 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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