Malachra capitata: How to Spot and Control It in Rice Fields
Malachra capitata is a hairy, yellow flowered broadleaf weed known by many local names, from Anabo to bulubuluhan. It grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it by its hairy stems and toothed leaves, and how to control it before it drops seed.
What Is Malachra capitata?
In English, Malachra capitata is called Brazil jute. It belongs to the mallow family, Malvaceae, the same family as okra and gumamela. Filipino farmers know it by many names: Anabo, bakembakes, bulbulin, buluhan, bulubuluhan, lapnis, pang balius, labog labog and tambaking. Since it is a broadleaf weed, it is not a grass or a sedge.
You will see it in rainfed lowland rice fields. As an annual, each plant grows, flowers and dies within one season. Seed is its only way to spread. Seeds that drop into the soil wait for the next rains, and then they sprout with the new palay. If you let plants flower, the seed bank in your soil grows season after season.
| Name | Malachra capitata |
|---|---|
| English name | Brazil jute |
| Family | Malvaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Anabo, bakembakes, bulbulin, buluhan, bulubuluhan, lapnis, pang balius, labog labog, tambaking |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Malachra capitata
Start with the stems. They branch out and are covered with hairs. The leaves are lobed, but only faintly and shallowly, and the edges have fine teeth. The base of each leaf is heart shaped. Being a broadleaf weed, it has wide leaves with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The flowers have yellow petals. Check the leaf shape and petal color together, since a close cousin looks much the same.
- Branched stems covered with hairs that you can feel when you rub them.
- Leaves with faint, shallow lobes and finely toothed edges all around.
- A heart shaped base where each leaf joins its stalk.
- Flowers with yellow petals, held among the hairy leaves and stems.
- Look alike tip: Malachra fasciata has deeply cut leaves with five narrow lobes and white petals.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Malachra capitata competes with palay for water, fertilizer and light. Its branched stems spread out and shade the rice hills nearby, most of all while the rice is still young. In rainfed fields, where water is already short, every drop the weed uses is a drop the rice loses.
Since it spreads by seed, each plant left to flower adds more seed to the soil. Seeds can also get mixed into the harvest and into palay saved for planting. The hairy stems make hand weeding unpleasant, so wear gloves. Weeds like this can also give shelter to insect pests between the rice hills.
How to Control Malachra capitata
- Wear gloves and long sleeves when you pull it, since the stems are covered in hairs.
- Pull plants while they are young and the stems are soft, before the yellow flowers open and seed forms.
- Carry pulled plants out of the paddy, because flowering plants left on the bund can still drop seed into the field.
- Keep shallow water in the field where your supply allows, since its seeds sprout on moist, exposed soil.
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 Malachra capitata 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 Malachra capitata 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 Malachra capitata?
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 Malachra capitata
What is Malachra capitata called in the Philippines?
How do I control this weed in a rice field?
Why do I see more of it every season?
Get Malachra capitata out of your field
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