Goosegrass in Rice Fields: How to Spot It and Control It
Goosegrass is a tough, clumping grass weed of rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. It hugs the ground in a flat tuft and sends up spikes shaped like fingers. Besides taking food from your palay, it hosts three rice diseases. This page shows how to spot it, why it matters and how to control it.
What Is Goosegrass?
Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) is a common member of the grass family. It carries many local names, including bakis bakisan, bang angan, bikad bikad, bila bila, palagtiki, parangis, paragis, sabung sabungan and sambali. In rice farming, it shows up in rainfed lowland fields, where water does not always stand in the paddy. You will often see it on paths and bunds around the farm too.
This weed is an annual. It lives for one season and spreads only by seed. But each plant makes a huge number of seeds. Besides that, animals that eat the seed heads carry the seeds to new places. So one clump left to ripen on a bund can seed a whole field.
| Name | Goosegrass |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Eleusine indica |
| Family | Poaceae (Graminae) |
| Weed group | Grasses (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Bakis bakisan, bang angan, bikad bikad, bila bila, palagtiki, parangis, paragis, sabung sabungan, sambali |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Goosegrass
This weed grows as a smooth, flat tuft that spreads low and then rises. Like any grass, it has jointed stems with clear nodes, but its stems look flat rather than round. The stem base is whitish, turning pale green higher up. Leaf blades are flat, narrow and hairy on top, with long hairs where blade meets sheath. The ligule is a thin membrane, and there are no auricles. At the top, 3 to 6 spikes fan out like fingers.
- A flat, smooth tuft hugs the ground, with stems spreading out from the center.
- Stem bases look whitish, and the color fades to pale green higher up.
- Long hairs sit where the leaf blade joins the sheath, and auricles are missing.
- The collar of the leaf sheath is moderately hairy, and the ligule is a thin membrane.
- Seed heads end in a whorl of 3 to 6 spikes that spread like fingers.
- Look alike tip: crowfoot grass has short, thick finger spikes, while these spikes are long and slender.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Goosegrass is a C4 weed, so it grows strongly in full sun and heat. Each plant makes 50,000 seeds on average. Animals that eat the seed heads also spread those seeds with ease. As a result, a few plants can seed a large area.
No report yet shows how strongly it competes with rice. Even so, it uses the same water, light and fertilizer that your palay needs. Its bigger threat is disease. It is an alternative host of Rhizoctonia solani, which causes sheath blight, and Pyricularia oryzae, which causes blast. It also hosts Sarocladium oryzae, which causes sheath rot.
How to Control Goosegrass
- Keep the bunds and paths around your paddy clean, since this grass often grows there first and then seeds into the field.
- Keep water standing in the field when you can. This grass prefers drier ground and does poorly under flooding.
- Pull clumps on wet soil before the finger spikes ripen. Its roots grip hard, so loosen the base with a small tool first.
- Keep grazing animals away from seeding patches, so they do not carry the seeds into clean fields.
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 Grasses
If water and weeding cannot hold goosegrass down, choose an active ingredient that works on grasses 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, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Clomazone, Penoxsulam plus butachlor, Tefuryltrione plus triafamone, Tetflupyrolimet, Thiobencarb plus 2,4 D IBE | Butachlor, Pretilachlor, Oxadiazon, Pretilachlor plus butachlor, Butachlor plus 2,4 D IBE, Pendimethalin, Pyrazosulfuron ethyl plus pretilachlor, Butachlor with safener, Clomazone, Tetflupyrolimet |
| 6 to 10 days | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Pendimethalin, Cyhalofop butyl plus propanil, Propyrisulfuron, Clomazone plus propanil, Thiobencarb plus propanil, Flucetosulfuron, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl | Butachlor plus propanil, Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop, 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, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl, Profoxydim | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Bispyribac sodium, Cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Penoxsulam plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim, Cyhalofop butyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Propyrisulfuron, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron, Flucetosulfuron, Florpyrauxifen benzyl, Cyhalofop butyl plus florpyrauxifen benzyl, Profoxydim |
| 21 to 30 days | Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Fenoxaprop P ethyl plus ethoxysulfuron | Cyhalofop butyl plus bispyribac sodium, Metamifop, Pyribenzoxim plus cyhalofop butyl, Metamifop plus bispyribac sodium, Pyribenzoxim |
| 31 to 40 days | No herbicide listed at this age. Hand weed and keep the water up. | 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 Goosegrass 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 the seed heads open, and clean the thresher and harvester before they enter the field.
- 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 grass weed in the paddy, not only this one. The weed management guide puts them in order for a whole season.
Not Sure It Is Goosegrass?
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 Goosegrass
What are the local names of goosegrass?
How do I control this grass in my rice field?
Can animals eat it, and is that a problem?
Get Goosegrass 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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