Wild Bushbean: How to Spot and Control It in Rice Fields
Wild bushbean is an upright, bean family weed that farmers call Balabalatong. It shows up in rainfed lowland rice fields in the Philippines, where the soil is not always flooded. This page shows you how to spot it by its three part leaves and long pods, and how to control it before the pods ripen.
What Is Wild Bushbean?
Wild bushbean belongs to the bean family, Papilionaceae, also called Leguminosae. Its scientific name is Macroptilium lathyroides, and farmers know it as Balabalatong. Since it is a broadleaf weed, it is not a grass or a sedge. Like other legumes, it carries its seeds in long pods, much like the beans you grow at home.
You will find 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. The long pods turn from green to brown as they ripen, and the seeds inside fall to the ground. Then those seeds wait in the soil and sprout when the next rains come.
| Name | Wild bushbean |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Macroptilium lathyroides |
| Family | Papilionaceae (Leguminosae) |
| Weed group | Broadleaves (see the three groups) |
| Local names | Balabalatong |
| Life cycle | Annual |
| Spreads by | Seeds |
| Where it grows | Rainfed lowland rice fields |
How to Identify Wild Bushbean
Look for an upright plant with branched stems that feel woody. Each leaf is made of three leaflets, like a bean leaf, and the leaflets are oval to lance shaped. As a broadleaf weed, it has wide leaves with netted veins, unlike grasses and sedges. The flowers are red purple. After flowering, it forms long, slender pods that start green and turn brown when mature.
- Upright plants with branched stems that feel woody when you bend them.
- Leaves made of three leaflets, each oval to lance shaped, like a bean leaf.
- Red purple flowers shaped like the flowers of other beans and peas.
- Long, slender pods, green when young and brown when mature.
- Leaves with netted veins, unlike the parallel veins of grassy weeds and sedges nearby.
Why It Hurts Your Palay
Wild bushbean competes with your palay for water, light and space. Its woody, branched stems spread out and shade nearby rice hills. Because it is a legume, it can make some of its own nitrogen, so it can still grow well where the soil is poor. It also takes water and other nutrients from the same root zone as the rice.
The bigger risk is the seed. Each plant fills many long pods, and the seeds drop into the field. Seeds caught at harvest can also mix with the palay and end up in seed you save. Weeds like this give pests a place to hide between the rice hills too. So one season of neglect can leave you with more weeding in the seasons that follow.
How to Control Wild Bushbean
- Pull the plants before the pods turn brown, because mature pods split open and drop their seeds onto the field.
- Hand weed while the stems are still soft, since older plants with woody stems are hard to pull out with their roots.
- Carry pulled plants with pods out of the paddy and dry them away from the field, instead of leaving them on the bund.
- Where your water supply allows, keep standing water in the paddy early on, since its seeds sprout best on moist, unflooded 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 wild bushbean 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 Wild Bushbean 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 Wild Bushbean?
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 Wild Bushbean
What is wild bushbean called in Tagalog?
How do I control it in my rice field?
Why does this weed keep coming back every season?
Get Wild Bushbean 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.
The account is free, no credit card.
