Forked Fimbry: How to Spot and Control It in Your Rice Field
Forked fimbry, or Fimbristylis dichotoma, is a sedge weed of irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. Farmers call it bungot bungot, gumi or siraw siraw. It looks a lot like globe fringerush. This page shows how to tell them apart, how it affects your palay, and how to control it before it seeds.
What Is Forked Fimbry?
This damo is a sedge from the Cyperaceae family. Farmers know it as bungot bungot, gumi or siraw siraw, and its scientific name is Fimbristylis dichotoma. It grows in both irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields.
Most plants live for one season only, but some carry on as perennials. It spreads by seed. Each plant that flowers drops its seeds into the soil, and they sprout again at the next land preparation. Forked fimbry is a close relative of globe fringerush, and the two share the same local names. So it helps to know the small details that set them apart. Even so, the same weeding steps work for both, so you can clear them together in one pass.
| Name | Forked fimbry |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Fimbristylis dichotoma |
| Family | Cyperaceae |
| Weed group | Sedges (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Bungot bungot, gumi, siraw siraw |
| Life cycle | Annual, sometimes perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Forked Fimbry
Like other sedges, it has a solid stem with no nodes. Its build is almost the same as globe fringerush. Its stems stand erect and flat, with 2 to 4 unequal bracts that stay shorter than the flower head. The leaves are narrow, flat and soft, and they overlap in two rows. The difference lies in the spikelets. This weed has fewer of them, and each one is bigger and egg shaped.
- Erect, flattened stems with no joints, like other sedges.
- Two to four unequal bracts below the flower head, all shorter than the head.
- Narrow, soft, flat leaves that overlap in two rows at the base.
- Fewer spikelets than globe fringerush, and each one is bigger and egg shaped.
- Look alike tip: globe fringerush carries many small, round spikelets, while this one has fewer, larger ones.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Like most sedges, forked fimbry competes with palay for light, water and fertilizer. It grows between the rice hills and draws on the same nutrients your crop needs. When many plants come up early, young rice feels the pressure most.
Because it spreads by seed, every plant left to flower adds to the weed seed bank in your soil. Its seeds can also mix with harvested palay and lower the quality of seed you keep. Thick patches give shelter to insect pests and rats close to the rice hills.
How to Control Forked Fimbry
- Pull plants by hand before the egg shaped spikelets ripen, since it spreads by seed.
- Remove the whole plant with its base, because some plants carry on as perennials and can regrow.
- Weed globe fringerush and forked fimbry together in the same pass, since the same hand weeding and water care work for both.
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 forked fimbry 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 Forked Fimbry 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 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 Forked Fimbry?
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 Forked Fimbry
What do farmers call forked fimbry in Tagalog and other local languages?
How do I control it in my rice field?
Is it the same weed as globe fringerush?
Get Forked Fimbry out of your field
With Libre + Anee, read the whole guide: how to tell it from your crop, and what to do and spray at every age of your crop.
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