Climbing Dayflower: How to Spot and Stop It in Rice Fields
Climbing dayflower is a fleshy, creeping weed with small blue flowers that grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. It roots again from broken stems, and studies show it can take a large share of your harvest. This page shows how to spot it early and how to control it before it takes over.
What Is Climbing Dayflower?
This weed belongs to the dayflower family. Farmers call it alikbangon, gatilang or kilasi, names it partly shares with its cousin, Benghal dayflower. Climbing dayflower grows in rainfed lowland rice fields. Its many branches creep over moist soil and then rise, so it can climb up among the rice hills.
Most plants live as annuals, but some carry on as perennials. It spreads by seed and by pieces of stem. Its fleshy stems root at the joints when they touch moist ground, so a single broken piece can start a new plant. That is why hand weeding must remove every fragment, not just the top growth. Once it forms a thick mat, clearing it takes far more time and labor.
| Name | Climbing dayflower |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Commelina diffusa |
| Family | Commelinaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Alikbangon, gatilang, kilasi |
| Life cycle | Annual, sometimes perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds and vegetative fragments |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Climbing Dayflower
Look for fleshy, heavily branched stems that creep along the ground and then lift upward. The leaves grow one at a time, narrow and shaped like a lance. Their base wraps around the stem like a sleeve. It counts as a broadleaf weed for control, but its leaf veins run side by side like those of grasses. Each blue flower has three petals: two large ones and one small one.
- Fleshy stems that branch heavily, creep over the ground and then turn upward.
- Narrow, lance shaped leaves set one at a time along the stem.
- A leaf base that wraps around the stem like a sleeve or sheath.
- Small blue flowers with three petals, two large and one small.
- Look alike tip: Benghal dayflower has broader oval leaves, widest in the middle.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Climbing dayflower can cut your harvest hard. In one study, drill seeded rice planted at 215 to 270 plants per square meter lost 18 percent of its yield. That happened when the weed grew at 22 plants per square meter for the whole season. In another study, the weed reduced grain yield by as much as 22 percent in transplanted rice and 34 percent in wet direct seeded rice.
Besides taking light, water and fertilizer, its fleshy mats resist clearing. Broken stems root again, so one weeding may not be enough. That extra labor adds to your cost every season.
How to Control Climbing Dayflower
- Gather every stem piece after weeding and carry it out in a sack. Pieces left on moist soil root at the joints.
- Weed early, while the stems are short and few. Heavily branched mats take far more labor to lift once they spread.
- Dry pulled plants completely on a tarp or hard, dry ground before composting, since fleshy stems can stay alive for a long time.
- Walk the field again one to two weeks after weeding and pull any new shoots from missed fragments.
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 climbing 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 Climbing 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 Climbing 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 Climbing Dayflower
What is climbing dayflower called in the Philippines?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
How much yield can I lose to this weed?
Get Climbing Dayflower out of your field
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