Giant Sensitive Plant: How to Spot and Control It in Rice Fields
Giant sensitive plant is a thorny, spreading shrub that farmers call makahiyang lalaki, Aroma, kapit kabag or kipi kipi. It grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it, how to handle its sharp spines, and how to control it before it takes hold in your bukid.
What Is Giant Sensitive Plant?
In English, this weed is called the giant sensitive plant. Its scientific name is Mimosa diplotricha, and it belongs to the Mimosaceae family, the same group as the small makahiya. In the bukid, farmers call it Aroma, kapit kabag, kipi kipi, makahiya or makahiyang lalaki. The name makahiyang lalaki sets it apart from the smaller makahiya, Mimosa pudica. Since it is a broadleaf weed, it is not a grass or a sedge.
You will see it in rainfed lowland rice fields. As a perennial shrub, it lives for years and turns woody as it matures. Seed is how it spreads. Pods form after the pink to purple flowers, and the seeds drop around the parent plant. Left alone, it builds thick, thorny tangles that are hard to walk through.
| Name | Giant sensitive plant |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Mimosa diplotricha |
| Family | Mimosaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Aroma, kapit kabag, kipi kipi, makahiya, makahiyang lalaki |
| Life cycle | Perennial |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Giant Sensitive Plant
Look for a spreading shrub with angled stems packed with backward pointing spines. These spines catch on clothes and skin. The leaves are feathery, with 4 to 8 pairs of side branches, and each branch holds many pairs of narrow leaflets. Like other broadleaf weeds, its leaflets have netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The flowers are pink to purple, and the pods are long and narrow. Older plants become woody at the base.
- A spreading shrub that turns woody as it gets older.
- Angled stems densely covered with sharp spines that point backward and catch on clothes.
- Feathery leaves with 4 to 8 pairs of side branches, each holding many narrow leaflets.
- Pink to purple flowers, followed by long, narrow seed pods.
- Look alike tip: the small makahiya has fewer spines, and its leaflets spread like fingers at the stalk tip.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Giant sensitive plant spreads into a thick, thorny shrub. It shades the palay and takes water, fertilizer and space from the rice hills it grows over. In rainfed fields, where water is often short, that competition cuts deep.
The spines are the other big problem. They scratch and cut the hands, arms and legs of anyone who weeds, plants or harvests near it. Workers tend to avoid thorny patches, so the weed gets left behind and grows even bigger. Because it is a perennial that turns woody, old plants get harder to remove each season. Its pods also add seed to the soil every year.
How to Control Giant Sensitive Plant
- Always wear thick gloves, long sleeves and boots when you pull or cut it, because the backward pointing spines tear skin and clothes.
- Cut or uproot plants before the pink to purple flowers turn into pods, so no new seed falls into the field.
- Remove plants while they are still young and soft, since the shrub turns woody and much harder to uproot as it matures.
- Dig out the woody base and roots of older plants, because this perennial can grow back from what you leave in the ground.
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 giant sensitive plant 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 Giant Sensitive Plant 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 Giant Sensitive Plant?
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 Giant Sensitive Plant
What is giant sensitive plant called in Tagalog?
How do I control it in my rice field?
Is this weed dangerous to farmers?
Get Giant Sensitive Plant out of your field
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