Littlebell: How to Spot and Control This Vine in Rice Fields
Littlebell is a small twining vine with heart shaped leaves and pink to purple flowers. Many farmers know it as aurora or kamkamote. It grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it and how it wraps around and competes with your palay. Then it shows how to control it before it sets seed.
What Is Littlebell?
Littlebell is an annual vine from the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, so it is a relative of kamote and kangkong. Its thin stems either twine around other plants or crawl along the ground. Farmers have many names for it, such as aurora, bangbangau, kamkamote, koskusipa, kupit kupit, halobagbug and muti muti. Its scientific name is Ipomoea triloba.
You will find this damo in rainfed lowland rice fields. Since it is an annual, its life lasts one season only. Within one crop it sprouts, climbs, flowers, sets seed and dies. Seed is its only way to spread. Once a flower fades, it can turn into a small round pod with a few seeds inside. Those seeds stay in the soil until the next crop, and then they come up again.
| Name | Littlebell |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Ipomoea triloba |
| Family | Convolvulaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Aurora, bangbangau, kamkamote, koskusipa, kupit kupit, halobagbug, muti muti |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Littlebell
Look for thin stems that twist around rice stalks or crawl over the soil. Each leaf is wide and oval, heart shaped where it meets the stalk and drawn out to a long point. Some leaves are whole, while others show three shallow lobes. Like other broadleaf weeds, the leaves are wide with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. Its small bell shaped flowers are pink to purple.
- Thin vine stems twisting around rice stalks or crawling across the ground.
- Broad, oval leaves with a heart shaped base and a long pointed tip.
- Leaves that are whole or show three shallow lobes, a bit like a small kamote leaf.
- Small pink to purple flowers shaped like little bells or funnels.
- Rice hills pulled together or bent where the vine has wrapped around them.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
This vine competes with your palay in two ways. First, like any weed, it takes sunlight, water and fertilizer from the soil your rice shares. Next, its twining stems wrap around rice plants. The vine climbs up the stalks, spreads its leaves over the crop and adds shade where the rice needs light.
A tangled vine also makes work harder. It slows hand weeding and can get caught at harvest. Since it is an annual that spreads by seed, each vine that flowers adds seed to your soil for next season. Seeds can also end up mixed in the harvested palay.
How to Control Littlebell
- Unwind the vine from the rice gently and pull it out by the root. Pulling works better than cutting off the top.
- Weed early, before the stems twine up the rice. Young vines lying on the ground are much easier to remove.
- Remove vines before the pink flowers turn into pods, so no new seeds fall into the paddy.
- Clear the bunds and fence lines too, since vines there can climb, flower and drop seed 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 littlebell 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 Littlebell 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 Littlebell?
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 Littlebell
What do farmers call littlebell in the Philippines?
How do I control aurora vine in my rice field?
Is kamkamote the same as kamote?
Get Littlebell 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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