Sessile Joyweed: A Creeping Broadleaf Weed in Philippine Rice
Sessile joyweed is a low, creeping broadleaf weed that spreads across irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines. It hugs the ground and carries tiny white flower heads where the leaves meet the stem. This page shows how to spot it early, what it takes from your palay, and how to keep it from crowding your rice.
What Is Sessile Joyweed?
This damo belongs to the amaranth family, the same group as kulitis. Farmers in different regions call it bonga bonga, bilanamanut or lupo. Sessile joyweed turns up in both irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields. It likes moist ground, so you will find it on wet paddy soil, along levees and in low spots that stay damp.
The word sessile means the flower heads sit right on the stem, with no stalk. As an annual, it finishes its whole life in one season. It reproduces by seed, and each small white flower head ripens many tiny seeds. Because it grows flat and spreading, one plant can cover a wide patch of soil between the rice hills. So a few plants missed early can turn into a green carpet by the middle of the season.
| Name | Sessile joyweed |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Alternanthera sessilis |
| Family | Amaranthaceae |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Bonga bonga, bilanamanut, lupo |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Irrigated and rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Sessile Joyweed
Look down, not up. This weed spreads flat or sprawls along the ground instead of standing tall. Its leaves sit in pairs along the stem, narrow and shaped like a lance or a long oval. Small white flower heads, round to slightly oblong, sit tight in the angle where each leaf meets the stem. As a broadleaf weed, it has flat leaves with netted veins, not the long parallel veins of grasses.
- Low green mats spreading over wet soil between the rice hills, not standing upright.
- Narrow, lance shaped leaves growing in pairs along the creeping stems.
- Small, round to oblong white flower heads sitting tight where the leaves join the stem.
- Flower heads with no stalk at all, which is where the name sessile comes from.
- Stems that run along the ground and may root where they touch the mud.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Sessile joyweed does not grow tall, but it still competes hard. Its mats cover the soil between the rice hills and take up water and fertilizer meant for your palay. Young rice suffers most, because the weed spreads while the seedlings are still small. A thick carpet also keeps the soil shaded and damp, which gives insects, rats and other pests a hiding place.
At harvest, its tiny seeds can get mixed with the grain. Then they travel with your seed to the next field. Since it is an annual, every plant that sets seed adds to next season's weed problem.
How to Control Sessile Joyweed
- Pull out the whole mat, roots and all, and carry it out of the field. Creeping stems left on wet mud can root again at the joints.
- Weed early, while the mats are still small and the rice is young. Once the mats knit together, they take much more work to lift.
- Keep the levees clean too, because the weed can creep from the bunds into the paddy and drop seed there.
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 sessile joyweed 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 Sessile Joyweed 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 Sessile Joyweed?
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 Sessile Joyweed
What is sessile joyweed called in the Philippines?
How do I control this weed in my rice field?
Why does it spread so fast across the paddy?
Get Sessile Joyweed out of your field
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