Malachra fasciata: How to Spot and Control It in Rice Fields
Malachra fasciata is a hairy broadleaf weed that farmers call Bakembakem or lapnis na buluhan. It grows in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. This page shows you how to spot it by its deeply cut, hand shaped leaves and white flowers, and how to control it before it drops seed.
What Is Malachra fasciata?
This weed belongs to the mallow family, Malvaceae, the same family as okra and gumamela. Malachra fasciata has no widely used English name, so most people simply use its scientific name. In the bukid, farmers call it Bakembakem or lapnis na buluhan. 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 lives for one season and then dies. Seed is its only way to spread. When the plants flower and set seed, the seeds fall into the soil and wait for the next rains. That is how one missed plant can become a patch the next season.
| Name | Malachra fasciata |
|---|---|
| Family | Malvaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Bakembakem, lapnis na buluhan |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Malachra fasciata
Look for branched stems covered with yellowish hairs. The leaves are your best clue. Each one is cut deeply into 5 narrow lobes, spread out like the fingers of a hand. As a broadleaf weed, its leaves have netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The flowers have white petals. Its close cousin, Malachra capitata, has shallowly lobed leaves and yellow petals, so leaf shape and flower color tell them apart.
- Branched stems covered with yellowish hairs that you can see and feel.
- Leaves cut deeply into 5 narrow lobes, spread like the fingers of a hand.
- Flowers with white petals among the hairy leaves and stems.
- Look alike tip: Malachra capitata has shallowly lobed leaves and yellow petals instead of white.
- Netted veins on the leaf lobes, unlike the parallel veins of grasses and sedges.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Malachra fasciata takes water, fertilizer and light that your palay needs. Its branched stems spread out and can shade young rice hills. The harm is greatest early in the season, while the rice is still small. In rainfed fields, where water can run short, the fight for moisture hurts even more.
Since it spreads only by seed, each plant left to flower adds to the weed seed in your soil. Some seed can also get mixed into the harvest and into palay you save for planting. Weeds like this can also give insect pests a place to hide. Its hairy stems make it unpleasant to pull by hand, so use gloves.
How to Control Malachra fasciata
- Wear gloves when you pull it, since the stems are covered with yellowish hairs.
- Pull plants early, before the white flowers open, so no seed drops into the paddy.
- Bring pulled plants out of the field and dry them away from the bunds, where seed could wash back in.
- 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 fasciata 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 fasciata 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 fasciata?
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 fasciata
What is Malachra fasciata called in Tagalog or local names?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
How do I tell it apart from Malachra capitata?
Get Malachra fasciata 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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