Cyperus haspan: How to Spot and Control This Sedge in Rice Fields
Cyperus haspan, or haspan flatsedge, is a slender sedge weed of irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. Farmers know it as bungot bungot, manik manikan and other names. It spreads by seed and by rootstocks. This page shows how to spot it and how to control it in your palay.
What Is Cyperus haspan?
This damo is a sedge from the Cyperaceae family. Its English name is haspan flatsedge. Farmers know it by several local names, such as balabalangutan, barsanga, bungot bungot and manik manikan. You will find Cyperus haspan in both irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields.
Most of the time it is an annual that lives for one season only, but some plants keep growing as perennials. It spreads by seed and also by rootstocks, which are short underground stems at the base of the plant. Seeds fall into the soil and sprout with the next crop. Meanwhile, plants with living rootstocks can send up new shoots after you cut them. So a quick cut at the surface rarely ends the problem.
| Name | Cyperus haspan |
|---|---|
| English name | Haspan flatsedge |
| Family | Cyperaceae |
| Weed group | Sedges (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Balabalangutan, barsanga, bungot bungot, manik manikan |
| Life cycle | Annual, sometimes perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds and rootstocks |
| Where it grows | Irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Cyperus haspan
Like other sedges, it has a solid, three angled stem with no nodes. Its stems look slender, and each side carries a rib that runs along the length of the stem. At the top, the flower head has many long, slender main rays and shorter side rays. The spikelets sit in clusters that spread out like fingers from one point.
- Thin, slender stems with a raised rib running down each side.
- A flower head with many long, thin main rays fanning out from the top.
- Short side rays branching off the long main rays.
- Spikelets gathered in small clusters that spread out like fingers.
- New shoots rising from the base of a cut plant, a sign of living rootstocks.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Like most sedges, Cyperus haspan competes with palay for light, water and fertilizer. Even slender plants add up when many of them grow between the rice hills. Plants that live past one season also start the next crop ahead of your seedlings.
When it flowers, its seeds can mix with harvested palay and lower the quality of seed you keep. Its seeds also build up in the soil, so each missed plant means more weeds next season. Dense patches can shelter insect pests near the rice hills too.
How to Control Cyperus haspan
- Pull plants with their base and rootstocks, not just the tops, because living rootstocks send up new shoots.
- Weed before the finger like spikelet clusters ripen, so fewer seeds fall into the soil.
- After harvest, check field corners and bunds for plants that stayed alive, and dig them out before land preparation.
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 Sedges
If water and weeding cannot hold Cyperus haspan down, choose an active ingredient that works on sedges 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, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Imazosulfuron, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Butachlor, Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, 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, 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, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, 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 Cyperus haspan 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 their flower clusters turn brown, since one clump drops a great deal of tiny seed.
- 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 sedge weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Cyperus haspan?
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 Cyperus haspan
What do farmers call Cyperus haspan in Tagalog and other local languages?
How do I control it in my rice field?
Why does it come back after weeding?
Get Cyperus haspan out of your field
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