Crowfoot Grass: How to Spot and Stop It in Your Rice Field
Crowfoot grass is a creeping grass weed with a seed head shaped like a bird's foot. In the Philippines it grows mostly in rainfed lowland rice fields, where the soil often dries out. This page shows how to spot it early, how much harm it does to palay and how to control it.
What Is Crowfoot Grass?
Crowfoot grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium) belongs to the grass family. Its local names include damong balang, bayakibok, krus krusan, sabong sabongan and tugot manok. Once you see its seed head, it is easy to remember, because it looks like a bird's foot or a small starfish. You will find it in rainfed lowland rice fields, where it does best on drier ground.
Most plants live for only one season, so it usually acts as an annual. Still, some plants live on and behave like a perennial. It spreads mainly by seed. Besides that, its lower stems creep, fork into pairs and root where they touch the soil. So a plant can sometimes spread by these runners, called stolons, as well as by seed.
| Name | Crowfoot grass |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Dactyloctenium aegyptium |
| Family | Poaceae (Graminae) |
| Weed group | Grasses (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Damong balang, bayakibok, krus krusan, sabong sabongan, tugot manok |
| Life cycle | Annual, sometimes perennial |
| Spreads by | Primarily seeds and sometimes stolons |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Crowfoot Grass
This weed forms a low, spreading clump. Like other grasses, it has round, hollow stems with clear joints, or nodes. The lower stems creep along the ground, root at the joints and fork into two branches again and again. The flowering stems bend upward and then stand almost straight. At the top, short and thick spikes spread out from one point, like the toes of a bird's foot or the arms of a starfish.
- Lower stems creep on the soil, root at the joints and fork into pairs.
- Flowering stems rise at a slight angle and then stand nearly upright.
- The seed head spreads out from one point like a bird's foot or a starfish.
- Patches start on the higher, drier spots of rainfed fields where water does not stay.
- Look alike tip: goosegrass also has finger spikes, but its spikes are longer and thinner than these short, thick ones.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
This weed is a C4 plant, so it grows fast in strong sun and heat. It also handles dry ground well. That makes it a real threat in rainfed fields when the rains pause. One plant can make up to 66,000 seeds, so a few plants left to mature can load the soil with seed for the next crop.
When it grows with palay, it can cut rice yield by 10 to 75 percent. Besides that, it serves as an alternate host of the tungro viruses and of rice bugs. In other words, both can stay alive on this weed while no rice is growing. Then they move back into your next crop.
How to Control Crowfoot Grass
- Keep a steady layer of water in the field once your rice can take it. This grass prefers dry ground and struggles under flooding.
- Level the field well so no high, dry spots remain, since patches usually start on those dry spots first.
- Pull the plants before the seed heads open. One plant left to seed can drop thousands of seeds into your paddy.
- When you pull it, lift the creeping stems too, because runner pieces left on wet soil can root again.
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 Grasses
If water and weeding cannot hold crowfoot grass down, choose an active ingredient that works on grasses 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 | Butachlor, Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Clomazone, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Tetflupyrolimet, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Butachlor, Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Butachlor with safener, Clomazone, Tetflupyrolimet |
| 6 to 10 days | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Pendimethalin, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop, 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, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl, Profoxydim | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl, Profoxydim |
| 21 to 30 days | Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Metamifop, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim |
| 31 to 40 days | No herbicide listed at this age. Hand weed and keep the water up. | 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 Crowfoot Grass 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 the seed heads open, and clean the thresher and harvester before they enter the field.
- 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 grass weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Crowfoot Grass?
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 Crowfoot Grass
What do farmers call crowfoot grass in the Philippines?
How do I control crowfoot grass in a rice field?
Can this weed spread diseases to my rice?
Get Crowfoot Grass out of your field
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