Doveweed in Rice Fields: How to Spot Alikbangon and Stop It
Doveweed is a creeping broadleaf weed with narrow leaves and small purple flowers. Farmers know it as alikbangon or kulasi. It shows up most in rainfed lowland rice fields, where it spreads by seed and by stem pieces. This page shows you how to spot it between your palay and how to control it before it takes over.
What Is Doveweed?
Doveweed belongs to the dayflower family, Commelinaceae. In the field, people call it alikbangon, kulasi or kulkulasi. Its narrow leaves can make it look like a grass at first. But it is a broadleaf weed, and its soft, branched stems creep along the ground. You will find it mostly in rainfed lowland rice fields, where the soil dries out and gets wet again with the rains.
It is a perennial, so it does not die after one season. It makes seeds, but it also grows from vegetative parts. A stem piece that touches moist soil can root and start a new plant. That is why careless pulling or cutting can leave more plants behind than you started with.
| Name | Doveweed |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Murdannia nudiflora |
| Family | Commelinaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Alikbangon, kulasi, kulkulasi |
| Life cycle | Perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds and vegetative parts |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Doveweed
Walk your rice rows and look low, near the soil. This weed has branched stems that creep and spread over the ground. Its leaves are long, narrow and lance shaped, so at first look you may think it is a grass. Even so, it counts as a broadleaf weed, not a grass or a sedge. Check for its small purple flowers on long flowering stems, about 3 to 7 centimeters long. Grasses never carry petals like these, and that is your best clue.
- Branched stems creeping flat over moist soil between the rice hills.
- Long, narrow, lance shaped leaves that can pass for grass at first look.
- Small purple flowers on long flowering stems, about 3 to 7 centimeters long.
- Patches that grow back from stem pieces after a round of hand weeding.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
This creeping weed takes the same light, water and fertilizer that your palay needs. Its stems spread into low, dense patches between the rice hills. Young rice suffers most, because it is still small and slow to cover the ground.
Since it is a perennial, it does not leave after harvest. Instead, it stays in the field and returns with the next crop. In rainfed fields, the soil dries out between rains, and that gives it room to spread. Thick patches also make hand weeding slower and costlier for your family.
How to Control Doveweed
- When you pull the plants, carry them out of the field. Stem pieces left on wet soil can root and grow again.
- Weed early, while the patches are small, before the creeping stems branch and root across the rows.
- If you can, keep water in your rainfed field after planting. Fields that dry out between rains give creeping weeds more room to spread.
- Pick off plants before the purple flowers set seed, so you block both ways it spreads.
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 doveweed 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 Doveweed 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 Doveweed?
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 Doveweed
What is doveweed called in Tagalog and other local names?
How do I control doveweed in my rice field?
Why does alikbangon grow back after I weed it?
Get Doveweed out of your field
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