Lindernia antipoda: How to Spot and Control It in Rice Fields
Lindernia antipoda is a small broadleaf weed that farmers know as lalagang. It has slender stems and toothed leaves, and when it blooms, the flowers are lilac. You will find it in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it between your rice hills and how it competes with your palay. Then it shows how to control it before it sets seed.
What Is Lindernia antipoda?
Lindernia antipoda is a small herb from the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae. In English it is called sparrow false pimpernel. Farmers know it as lalagang. Its stems are thin, and the plant either spreads low or stands upright. Because it stays small, it can hide easily among young rice. Its pretty lilac flowers may look like a harmless wildflower, but in a palay field it is still a weed.
You will find it in rainfed lowland rice fields. This damo lives for only one season. Within one crop it sprouts, flowers, sets seed and dies. Seed is its only way to spread. Each small pod holds many tiny seeds that fall to the soil and wait there for the next planting. That is why a few plants left this season can bring many more next season.
| Name | Lindernia antipoda |
|---|---|
| English name | Sparrow false pimpernel |
| Family | Scrophulariaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Lalagang |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Lindernia antipoda
Look low between the rice hills for a small plant with slender stems, either creeping or upright. The leaves are oblong to long and narrow, set in pairs, on very short stalks. Small teeth run along the leaf edges. Like other broadleaf weeds, the leaves are wide with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. Once the plant matures, small lilac flowers show up and make it easier to find.
- A small plant with slender stems, spreading low or standing upright between rice hills.
- Oblong to long narrow leaves on very short stalks, set in pairs.
- Small teeth along the leaf edges, easy to see when you look closely.
- Small lilac flowers that stand out against the green of young rice.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Lalagang is small, but it competes with your palay all the same. Its roots draw water and nutrients from the soil your rice depends on, and it shares in the fertilizer you apply. Water can run short in a rainfed field, so every bit the weed takes hurts more. When many plants sprout at once, they crowd the gaps between young rice hills.
Because it is an annual that spreads by seed, every plant that flowers puts more seed into your soil. As a result, the patch comes back with the next crop, often thicker than before. Seeds can also mix with the harvested palay. Weedy spots give insects a place to hide close to your rice too.
How to Control Lindernia antipoda
- Walk the paddy while the rice is young and look low between the hills. Pull lalagang plants before the lilac flowers turn to seed.
- Hold rainwater in the paddy with strong bunds when you can. Tiny seeds of annual weeds come up more easily on bare, moist soil than under water.
- Clean the bunds and field edges as well, so plants there cannot drop seed back into the bukid.
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 Lindernia antipoda 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 Lindernia antipoda 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 Lindernia antipoda?
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 Lindernia antipoda
What is Lindernia antipoda called in the Philippines?
How do I control lalagang in my rice field?
Is lalagang harmful to my rice?
Get Lindernia antipoda out of your field
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