False Daisy (Higis Manok): How to Spot and Control It in Rice
False daisy is a broadleaf weed that many Filipino farmers call higis manok. It has reddish stems, and when it blooms, it shows small white flower heads. You can find it in both irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields across the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it among your palay and how it competes with your crop. It also shows how to control it before it seeds.
What Is False Daisy?
False daisy is a small annual damo from the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Its scientific name is Eclipta prostrata. Farmers know it as higis manok, tultulisan or tinta tinta. It has soft, fleshy stems and leaves set in pairs. Its tiny white flower heads look like a little daisy, and that is why people gave it its English name.
You can find it in irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields. This weed completes its life in one season. Within a single crop it sprouts, flowers, sets seed and dies. It spreads by seed, and each flower head makes many small seeds. Its stems also put out roots wherever they touch moist soil. So a plant that leans over can anchor itself in more places and keep growing.
| Name | False daisy |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Eclipta prostrata |
| Family | Asteraceae (Compositae) |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Higis manok, tultulisan, tinta tinta |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify False Daisy
Check for a low plant with soft, reddish, hairy stems. When a stem touches wet soil, look for small roots at the joints. The leaves are dark green and grow in pairs, one opposite the other. They are long and narrow, and if you look closely, the edges show clear teeth. Like other broadleaf weeds, the leaves have netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. Then look for small white flower heads, about 1 cm across, at the stem tips and leaf joints.
- Reddish, fleshy stems covered with short hairs, lying low or standing among the rice.
- Small roots growing from the stem joints wherever the stem touches wet soil.
- Dark green, narrow leaves set in opposite pairs along the stem.
- Leaf edges with clear, small teeth that you can see up close.
- White flower heads about 1 cm across, made of many tiny white florets.
- Look alike tip: Eclipta zippeliana has light green, much hairier leaves with coarse, spiny teeth.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Higis manok competes with your palay for light, water and fertilizer. It grows well on wet soil, so it fits right into a lowland rice field. Young rice is hit hardest, because it is still small when the weed fills the spaces between hills. Every handful of fertilizer the weed takes is food your crop does not get.
Because it is an annual that spreads by seed, each plant that flowers adds more seeds to your soil. That is why the same patch comes back crop after crop. Its seeds can also mix with harvested palay and lower its quality. Thick weedy spots can give insects and rats a place to hide as well.
How to Control False Daisy
- Hand weed early, while the plants are small. Pull the whole plant, including any rooted stem joints, and carry it out of the paddy.
- Do not leave pulled plants lying on wet soil. The stems can root again at the joints and keep growing.
- Remove plants before the white flower heads mature. Each head holds many small seeds that will sprout again next season.
- Clean the bunds and canal edges too. Plants growing there can drop seed back into the field.
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 false daisy 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 False Daisy 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.
- Prepare the land well: flood, plow, let the weed seeds sprout, then kill them when you harrow. Level the field so water covers it evenly.
- 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 False Daisy?
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 False Daisy
What is false daisy called in Tagalog and other local names?
How do I get rid of higis manok in my rice field?
Why does higis manok keep coming back every season?
Get False Daisy (Higis Manok) out of your field
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