Citation : Naidu, V.S.G.R.

2012, Hand Book on Weed Identification Directorate of

Weed Science Research, Jabalpur, India Pp 354.

Technical support : Virendra Kumar Kamalvanshi

Line Drawings : V.K.S. Meshram

COPYRIGHT 2012 INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Published by :
Director
Directorate of Weed Science Research
Maharajpur, Jablapur-482004 (M.P.)
 Index

1. Preface i-ii

2. Leaf Shapes iii-iv

3. Scientific Name Index v-x

4. Identification Details 1-337

5. Family Index 339-346

6. Glossary 347-354
 Preface
Man has selected his food crops from the many thousand plant species that exist for their nutritional and flavor
characteristic rather than through their ability to compete. Growing of crops, as part of agriculture for centuries, has
changed the natural vegetation. Weeds grow on soil along with crop plants. But this growth of weed is not desirable in
the monoculture system. These undesired plants deplete the nutrients, water and space allotted for the intended crop,
and finally cause huge reduction in crop yield. Weeds, in crop field, reduce input efficiency, interfere with agricultural
operations, impair quality and act as alternate hosts for several insect pests and diseases. Some weeds release toxic
substance which affects the crop growth. The obvious effect of these traits is the hike in cost of cultivation by several
folds. Along with this, weeds affect and interfere in the management of all the terrestrial and aquatic resources. They
endanger the native biodiversity by choking and deliberate takeover of the native plants. The animals which depend
on this native biodiversity for their survival are also getting affected. On the other hand, as part of the primary
producers within farming systems, weeds also considered as important components of the agroecosystem. Reductions
in abundances of weeds which act as hosts may affect associated insects and other taxa which are beneficial. Thus,
weeds have a role within agroecosystems in supporting biodiversity more generally. Weeds play important role as
resource in pharmaceuticals and animal nutrition.

Weed biology relates to the plant attributes such as morphology, seed dormancy and germination, physiology
of growth, competitive ability and reproductive biology. Knowledge of weed biology is essential for development of
both economically and environmentally acceptable weed management systems. It is also essential to understand and
predict how weed species, populations and biotypes evolve in response to the selection pressure primarily due to
agricultural and related practices. Weed identification is the first step in understanding their biology.

Knowing the weeds that are competing with the desirable crops is important to understand how to manage
their populations. It is said that identification is half way to control. The first step in effective weed management is the
accurate identification which in turn will help in a basic understanding of the weeds' life cycle. Correct identification
can be an important step in making sure that new weeds can be eradicated before they become established. The types of
weeds can also tell about the field and its management, and also the best form of direct control. Proper weed
identification can help in selecting right herbicide to control a particular weed. Identification is important also with
respect to the timing of the herbicide application. Sometimes correct identification can indicate that no action needs to
i
be taken if the identified plant is not a troublesome weed and also helps in protecting the weeds of economic
importance and conserving the biodiversity. Being able to identify the weeds is important as it helps in determining
the expected level of the problem as weeds vary in the extent to which they can reduce the yield and quality or to the
extent to which they are beneficial. Weed identification may form the first step in balancing the needs for weed control
with the requirements for biodiversity and more sustainable production methods.

An effort has been made to brought out this publication entitled Hand book on Weed Identification to help in
identifying the weeds easily. I hope this publication would be of great help to scientists, researchers, quarantine
officials, academicians and students.

I thank ICAR for giving me the opportunity to serve in this position. The financial support by the Department of
Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, under National Weed Surveillance project is duly
acknowledged. The encouragement by the present and former Directors, scientist colleagues, and technical and other
staff members of DWSR is worth to recognize. The support from PIs of the AICRP-WC centres and Area Coordinators
of the NIWS is unforgettable. The technical support by Mr. Sandeep Dhagat, Mr. Virendra Kumar Kamalvanshi and
Mr. V.K.S. Meshram in shaping up this publication is acknowledged.

March, 2012 V. S. G. R. NAIDU

ii
 Leaf shapes

Cordate Deltoid Elliptic Falcate Hastate

Lanceolate Linear Linear Lyrate Obcordate

iii
Oblanceolate Oblong Obovate Orbicular Oval

Ovate Reniform Runcinate Sagittate Spatulate

iv
 Scientific name index
Abelmoschus ficulneus (L.) Wight & Arn. 1 Andrographis paniculata Wall. 28
Abelmoschus moschatus Medik. 2 Anisomeles indica (L.) O. Kuntze. 29
Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet. 3 Anisomeles malabarica R.Br. 30
Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet. 4 Antigonon leptopus Hook. & Arn. 31
Acalypha indica L. 5 Apluda mutica L. 32
Acanthospermum hispidum DC. 6 Argemone mexicana L. 33
Achyranthes aspera L. 7 Arundo donax (L.) 34
Aerva javanica (Burm.f.) Schult. 8 Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav. 35
Aerva lanata (L.) Juss.ex Schult. 9 Asteracantha longifolia (L.) Nees. 36
Aeschynomene indica L. 10 Asystasia gangetica T. Anders. 37
Ageratum conyzoides L. 11 Atylosia scarabaeoides (L.) Benth. 38
Ageratum houstonianum Mill. 12 Avena ludoviciana (L.) Nees. 39
Alternanthera bettzickiana (Regol) Voss. 13 Axonopus compressus Beauv. 40
Alternanthera brasiliana (L.) Kuntze. 14 Barleria cristata L. 41
Alternanthera paronychioides A. St.-Hil. 15 Barleria prionitis L. 42
Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. 16 Bergia ammannioides Hayne ex Roth. 43
Alternanthera pungens H. B & K. 17 Bergia capensis L. 44
Alternanthera sessilis (L.) DC. 18 Bidens pilosa L. 45
Alysicarpus bupleurifolius (Linn.) DC. 19 Biophytum sensitivum (L.) Don. 46
Alysicarpus longifolius Wight & Arn. 20 Blainvillea acmella (L.) Philipson. 47
Alysicarpus monilifer (L.) DC. 21 Blepharis maderaspatensis (L.) Roth. 48
Alysicarpus ovalifolius (Schumach.) J. Leonard. 22 Blumea lacera (Burm.f) DC. 49
Alysicarpus vaginalis (L) DC. 23 Blumea oxyodonta DC. 50
Amaranthus spinosus L. 24 Blumea wightiana DC. 51
Amaranthus viridis Hook. F. 25 Boerhavia diffusa L. 52
Ammannia baccifera L. 26 Boerhavia erecta L. 53
Anagallis arvensis L. 27 Borreria hispida (L.) K. Schum. 54
v
Borreria pusilla (Wall.) DC. 55 Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. 84
Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Robyns 56 Cleome chelidonii Linn. 85
Brachiaria erusiformis (J.E.Smith) Griseb. 57 Cleome gynandra L. 86
Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf. 58 Cleome monophylla L. 87
Brachiaria reptans Gard. & Hubb. 59 Cleome viscosa L. 88
Cabomba aquatica (Piotr Kuczynski) 60 Clerodendron infortunatum Gaertn. 89
Caesulia axillaries Roxb. 61 Clitoria ternatea L. 90
Calotropis gigantea (L.) Aiton. 62 Cocculus hirsutus (L.) Diels. 91
Calotropis procera (Aiton) Dryand. ex. 63 Coix barbata (Roxb.) R. Br. 92
Cannabis sativa L. 64 Coix lacryma-jobi L. 93
Cardamine hirsuta L. 65 Commelina benghalensis L. 94
Cardiospermum halicacabum L. 66 Commelina diffusa L. 95
Cassia absus L. 67 Commelina forskaolii Vahl. 96
Cassia mimosoides L. 68 Convolvulus arvensis L. 97
Cassia occidentalis (L.) Link. 69 Convolvulus pluricaulis Choisy. 98
Cassia pumila Lam. 70 Conyza bonariensis (L.) Cronq. 99
Cassia tora (L.) Roxb. 71 Conyza Canadensis (L.) Cronq. 100
Catharanthus pusillus (Murr.) G. Don. 72 Corchorus aestuans L. 101
Cayratia trifolia (L.) Domin. 73 Corchorus capsularis L. 102
Celosia argentea L. 74 Corchorus fascicularis L. 103
Centella asiatica L. 75 Corchorus olitorius L. 104
Centrosema pubescens Benth. 76 Corchorus trilocularis Auct. 105
Chenopodium album L. 77 Coronopus didymus (L.) Sm. 106
Chenopodium murale L. 78 Crotalaria medicaginea Lam. 107
Chloris barbata Sw. 79 Crotalaria prostrata Rottl. Ex Willd. 108
Chromolaena odorata L. R.M. king & H. Rob. 80 Crotalaria sagittalis L. 109
Chrozophora plicata (Vahl) A. Juss. ex Spreng 81 Crotalaria verrucosa L. 110
Chrozophora rottleri Klotzsch. 82 Croton bonplandianum Baill. 111
Cichorium intybus L. 83 Cyanotis axillaris Roem. & Schult. F. 112
vi
Cyanotis cristata (Linn.) D. Don 113 Echinops echinatus Roxb. 142
Cyathula prostrata (L.) Blume. 114 Eclipta alba (L.) Hassk. 143
Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. 115 Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.-Laub. 144
Cyperus brevifolius Rottb. 116 Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertner. 145
Cyperus compressus L. 117 Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC. Ex Wight. 146
Cyperus difformis L. 118 Eragrostis unioloides (Retz.) Nees. Ex Steud 147
Cyperus eragrostis Lam. 119 Eriocaulon sieboldianum Siebold & Zucc. ex Steud. 148
Cyperus haspan L. 120 Euphorbia dracunculoides Lamarck. 149
Cyperus iria L. 121 Euphorbia geniculata Orteg. 150
Cyperus kyllingia L. 122 Euphorbia hirta L. 151
Cyperus rotundus L. 123 Euphorbia hypersifolia L. 152
Cyperus tenuispica L. 124 Euphorbia indica Lam. 153
Cyperus triceps L. 125 Euphorbia microphylla Heyne ex. Roth. 154
Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd 126 Euphorbia thymifolia L. 155
Dactyloctenium scindicum Boiss. 127 Evolvulus alsinoides (L.) L. 156
Datura metel L. 128 Evolvulus nummularius (L.) L. 157
Desmodium gangeticum (L.) DC. 129 Fimbristylis dichotoma (L.) Vahl. 158
Desmodium laxiflorum. DC. 130 Fimbristylis miliaceae (L.) Vahl. 159
Desmodium triflorum (L.) DC. 131 Fumaria parviflora Lam. 160
Desmostachya bipinnata Stapf. 132 Galium aparine L. 161
Dichanthium annulatum (Forssk.) Stapf. 133 Glinus lotoides L. 162
Digera arvensis Forssk. 134 Glinus oppositifolius L. 163
Digitaria sanguinalis L. (Scop.) 135 Gnaphalium polycephalum L. 164
Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panzer. 136 Gomphrena decumbens Jacq. 165
Diplocyclos palmatus (L.) C. Jeffrey 137 Grangea maderaspatana (L.) Poir 166
Dyschoriste depressa (L.) Nees. 138 Heliotropium indicum L. 167
Echinochloa colona (L.) Link. 139 Heliotropium ovalifolium Forsk. 168
Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv. 140 Hemidesmus indicus L. R. Br. 169
Echinochloa glabrescens L. 141 Heteropogon contortus (L.) P. Beauv. 170
vii
Hibiscus lobatus (J.A. Murray) O. Ktze. 171 Lepidium sativum L. 200
Hibiscus panduriformis Burm. f. 172 Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees. 201
Hibiscus vitifolius Linn. 173 Leucas aspera Link. 202
Hydrolea zeylanica (L.) Vahl. 174 Leucas cephalotes Roth. 203
Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit. 175 Leucas martinicensis R. Br. 204
Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch. 176 Leucas zeylanica (L.) R. Br. 205
Indigofera cordifolia Heyne. ex Roth. 177 Limnocharis flava (L.) Buchenau. 206
Indigofera linifolia (L.f.) Retz. 178 Lindernia antipoda (L.) Alston. 207
Indigofera linnaei Ali. 179 Lindernia ciliata (Colsm.) Panuell. 208
Indoneesiella echioides (L.) Sreem. 180 Lindernia crustacea (L.) F. Muell. 209
Ionidium suffruticosum (L.) Roem. & Sch. 181 Lindernia procumbens (Krock.) Philcox. 210
Ipomoea aquatica Forssk. 182 Ludwigia adscendens (L.) H. Hara. 211
Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet. 183 Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) Raven. 212
Ipomoea carnea Jace. 184 Ludwigia parviflora Roxb. 213
Ipomoea coccinea L. 185 Malachra capitata (Linn.) Linn. 214
Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq. 186 Malva parviflora L. 215
Ipomoea obscura (L.) Ker Gawl. 187 Malvastrum coromandelianum (L.) Garcke. 216
Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Br 188 Marsilea quadrifolia Linn. 217
Ipomoea pes-tigridis L. 189 Martynia annua L. 218
Ipomoea turbinata Lag. 190 Mecardonia procumbens (Mill.) Swall. 219
Ischaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merr. 191 Medicago denticulata Willd. 220
Ischaemum rugosum Salisb. 192 Melilotus alba Medikus. 221
Lagascea mollis Cav. 193 Melilotus indica (L.) All. 222
Lantana camara L. 194 Melochia corchorifolia L. 223
Lathyrus aphaca L. 195 Merremia aegyptia (Linn.) Urban 224
Lathyrus sativus L. 196 Merremia dissecta (Jacq.) Hallier f. 225
Launaea nudicaulis (Linn.) Hook. f. 197 Merremia emarginata (Burm. f.) Hall. f. 226
Launaea sarmentosa (Willd.) Sch.-Bip. 198 Merremia tuberosa (L.) Rendle 227
Leonitis nepetaefolia (L.) R. Br. 199 Mikania micrantha H.B.K. 228
viii
Mimosa invisa C. Mart. 229 Phyllanthus urinaria L. 258
Mimosa pudica L. 230 Phyllanthus virgatus Forst. 259
Mitracarpus Villosus (Sw.) DC. 231 Physalis minima L. 260
Mollugo nudicaulis Lam. 232 Physalis peruviana L. 261
Mollugo pentaphylla L. 233 Pluchea lanceolata (DC.) Oliv. & Hiern 262
Monochoria vaginalis (Burm f.) Kunth. 234 Plumbago zeylanica L. 263
Mukia maderaspatana (L.) Roem. 235 Polygonum plebeium R. Br. 264
Murdannia nudiflora (L.) Brenam. 236 Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf. 265
Oldenlandia corymbosa L. 237 Portulaca oleracea L. 266
Oldenlandia diffusa (Willd.) Roxb. 238 Portulaca quadrifida L. 267
Oldenlandia herbacea (L.) Roxb. 239 Pouzolzia zeylanica (L.) Bennet & R. Br. 268
Operculina turpethum (L.) Silva Manso. 240 Pseudognaphalium luteo-album (L.) Hillard & Burtt. 269
Oplismenus burmannii (Retz.) P.Beauv 241 Psoralea corylifolia L. 270
Oxalis corniculata L. 242 Rhynchosia minima DC. 271
Oxlis martiana Zucc. 243 Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) W.D. Clayton. 272
Parthenium hysterophorus L. 244 Ruellia prostrata Poir. 273
Paspalidium flavidum (Retz.) A. Camus. 245 Ruellia tuberosa L. 274
Paspalum dilatatum Poir. 246 Rumex dentatus L. 275
Paspalum distichum auct. nm L. 247 Rungia pectinata (L.) Nees. 276
Passiflora foetida L. 248 Rungia repens Nees. 277
Pedalium murex Linn. 249 Saccharum spontaneum L. 278
Pergularia daemia (Forssk.) Choiv. 250 Sacciolepis indica (L.) 279
Peristrophe paniculata (Forssk.) Brummit. 251 Sagittaria guyanensis H . B . K. 280
Phalaris minor Retz. 252 Salvinia molesta Mitchell. 281
Phaseolus trilobus (L.) Aiton & auct. 253 Scoparia dulcis L. 282
Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene. 254 Sebastiana chamaelea (Linn.) Muell. 283
Phyllanthus maderaspatensis L. 255 Setaria glauca (L.) P. Beauv. 284
Phyllanthus multiflorus Willd. 256 Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv. 285
Phyllanthus niruri L. 257 Sida acuta Burm. f. 286
ix
Sida cordata (Burm.f.) Borssum. 287 Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. 313
Sida cordifolia (linn) 288 Tephrosia purpuria (L.) Pers. 314
Sida rhombifolia L. 289 Themeda triandra Forssk. 315
Sida spinosa L. 290 Trianthema portulacastrum L. 316
Sisymbrium irio L. 291 Tribulus terrestris L. 317
Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. 292 Trichodesma indicum L. 318
Solanum nigrum L. 293 Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm f.) R. Br. 319
Solanum sisymbrifolium Lam. 294 Tridax procumbens L. 320
Solanum torvum Sw. 295 Trifolium fragiferum L. 321
Solanum viarum Dunal.. 296 Trigonella polycerata auct. non Linn. 322
Solanum xanthocarpum Schrad. & Wendl 297 Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq. 323
Sonchus asper (L.) Hill. 298 Typha angustata Bory & Chaubard. 324
Sonchus oleraceus L. 299 Urena lobata L. 325
Sopubia delphinifolia (L.) Don. 300 Urena sinuata L. 326
Sorghum halapense (L.) Pers. 301 Verbascum chinense (L.) Santapau Fl. 327
Spergula arvensis L. 302 Verbesina encelioides (Cav.)Benth. 328
Sphaeranthus indicus L. 303 Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less. 329
Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. 304 Vicia hirsuta (L.) S.F. Gray. 330
Spigelia anthelmia L. 305 Vicia sativa L. 331
Spilanthes acmella auct. non L. 306 Vicoa auriculata Cass. 332
Spilanthes calva DC. 307 Volutarella divaricata Benth & Hook. 333
Sporobolus diander (Retz.) P. Beauv. 308 Waltheria indica L. 334
Stachytarpeta indica (L.) Vahl. 309 Wedelia chinensis (Osbeck) Merr. 335
Stellaria media (L.) Vill. 310 Xanthium strumarium L. 336
Stemodia viscosa Roxb. 311 Zornia gibbosa Spanoghe. 337
Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze. 312

x
 Family index
ACANTHACEAE Alternanthera paronychioides A. St.-Hil. 15
Andrographis paniculata Wall. 28 Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb. 16
Asteracantha longifolia (L.) Nees. 36 Alternanthera pungens H. B & K. 17
Asystasia gangetica T. Anders. 37 Alternanthera sessilis (L.) DC. 18
Barleria cristata L. 41 Amaranthus spinosus L. 24
Barleria prionitis L. 42 Amaranthus viridis Hook. F. 25
Blepharis maderaspatensis (L.) Roth. 48 Celosia argentea L. 74
Dyschoriste depressa (L.) Nees. 138 Cyathula prostrata (L.) Blume. 114
Indoneesiella echioides (L.) Sreem. 180 Digera arvensis Forssk. 134
Peristrophe paniculata (Forssk.) Brummit. 251 Gomphrena decumbens Jacq. 165
Ruellia prostrata Poir. 273
Ruellia tuberosa L. 274 APIACEAE
Rungia pectinata (L.) Nees. 276 Centella asiatica L. 75
Rungia repens Nees. 277
APOCYNACEAE
AIZOACEAE Catharanthus pusillus (Murr.) G. Don. 72
Trianthema portulacastrum L. 316
ASCLEPIADACEAE
ALISMATACEAE Calotropis gigantea (L.) Aiton. 62
Sagittaria guyanensis H . B . K. 280 Calotropis procera (Aiton) Dryand. ex. 63
Hemidesmus indicus L. R. Br. 169
AMARANTHACEAE Pergularia daemia (Forssk.) Choiv. 250
Achyranthes aspera L. 7
Aerva javanica (Burm.f.) Schult. 8 ASTERACEAE
Aerva lanata (L.) Juss.ex Schult. 9 Acanthospermum hispidum DC. 6
Alternanthera bettzickiana (Regol) Voss. 13 Ageratum conyzoides L. 11
Alternanthera brasiliana (L.) Kuntze. 14 Ageratum houstonianum Mill. 12
339
Bidens pilosa L. 45 Tridax procumbens L. 320
Blainvillea acmella (L.) Philipson. 47 Verbesina encelioides (Cav.)Benth. 328
Blumea lacera (Burm.f) DC. 49 Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less. 329
Blumea oxyodonta DC. 50 Vicoa auriculata Cass. 332
Blumea wightiana DC. 51 Volutarella divaricata Benth & Hook. 333
Caesulia axillaries Roxb. 61 Wedelia chinensis (Osbeck) Merr. 335
Chromolaena odorata L. R.M. king & H. Rob. 80 Xanthium strumarium L. 336
Cichorium intybus L. 83
Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. 84 BORAGINACEAE
Conyza bonariensis (L.) Cronq. 99 Heliotropium indicum L. 167
Conyza Canadensis (L.) Cronq. 100 Heliotropium ovalifolium Forsk. 168
Echinops echinatus Roxb. 142 Trichodesma indicum L. 318
Eclipta alba (L.) Hassk. 143 Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm f.) R. Br. 319
Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC. Ex Wight. 146
Gnaphalium polycephalum L. 164 BRASSICACEAE
Grangea maderaspatana (L.) Poir. 166 Cardamine hirsuta L. 65
Lagascea mollis Cav. 193 Coronopus didymus (L.) Sm. 106
Launaea nudicaulis (Linn.) Hook. f. 197 Lepidium sativum L. 200
Launaea sarmentosa (Willd.) Sch.-Bip. 198 Sisymbrium irio L. 291
Mikania micrantha H.B.K. 228
Parthenium hysterophorus L. 244 CABOMBACEAE
Pluchea lanceolata (DC.) Oliv. & Hiern 262 Cabomba aquatica (Piotr Kuczynski) 60
Pseudognaphalium luteo-album (L.) Hillard & Burtt. 269
Sonchus asper (L.) Hill. 298 CANNABACEAE
Sonchus oleraceus L. 299 Cannabis sativa L. 64
Sphaeranthus indicus L. 303
Spilanthes acmella auct. non L. 306 CAPPARIDACEAE

Spilanthes calva DC. 307 Cleome chelidonii Linn. 85

Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. 313 Cleome gynandra L. 86

340
Cleome monophylla L. 87 Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq. 186
Cleome viscosa L. 88 Ipomoea obscura (L.) Ker Gawl. 187
Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Br 188
CARYOPHYLLACEAE Ipomoea pes-tigridis L. 189
Spergula arvensis L. 302 Ipomoea turbinata Lag. 190
Stellaria media (L.) Vill. 310 Merremia aegyptia (Linn.) Urban 224
Merremia dissecta (Jacq.) Hallier f. 225
CHENOPODIACEAE Merremia emarginata (Burm. f.) Hall. f. 226
Chenopodium album L. 77 Merremia tuberosa (L.) Rendle 227
Chenopodium murale L. 78 Operculina turpethum (L.) Silva Manso. 240

COMMELINACEAE CUCURBITACEAE
Commelina benghalensis L. 94 Diplocyclos palmatus (L.) C. Jeffrey 137
Commelina diffusa L. 95 Mukia maderaspatana (L.) Roem. 235
Commelina forskaolii Vahl. 96
Cyanotis axillaris Roem. & Schult. F. 112 CYPERACEAE
Cyanotis cristata (Linn.) D. Don 113 Cyperus brevifolius Rottb. 116
Murdannia nudiflora (L.) Brenam. 236 Cyperus compressus L. 117
Cyperus difformis L. 118
CONVOLVULACEAE Cyperus eragrostis Lam. 119
Convolvulus arvensis L. 97 Cyperus haspan L. 120
Convolvulus pluricaulis Choisy. 98 Cyperus iria L. 121
Evolvulus alsinoides (L.) L. 156 Cyperus kyllingia L. 122
Evolvulus nummularius (L.) L. 157 Cyperus rotundus L. 123
Ipomoea aquatica Forssk. 182 Cyperus tenuispica L. 124
Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet. 183 Cyperus triceps L. 125
Ipomoea carnea Jace. 184 Fimbristylis dichotoma (L.) Vahl. 158
Ipomoea coccinea L. 185 Fimbristylis miliaceae (L.) Vahl. 159

341
ELATNACEAE Alysicarpus longifolius Wight & Arn. 20
Bergia ammannioides Hayne ex Roth. 43 Alysicarpus monilifer (L.) DC. 21
Bergia capensis L. 44 Alysicarpus ovalifolius (Schumach.) J. Leonard. 22
Alysicarpus vaginalis (L) DC. 23
ERIOCAULACEAE Atylosia scarabaeoides (L.) Benth. 38
Eriocaulon sieboldianum Siebold & Zucc. ex Steud. 148 Cassia absus L. 67
Cassia mimosoides L. 68
EUPHORBIACEAE Cassia occidentalis (L.) Link. 69
Acalypha indica L. 5 Cassia pumila Lam. 70
Chrozophora plicata (Vahl) A. Juss. ex Spreng 81 Cassia tora (L.) Roxb. 71
Chrozophora rottleri Klotzsch. 82 Centrosema pubescens Benth. 76
Croton bonplandianum Baill. 111 Clitoria ternatea L. 90
Euphorbia dracunculoides Lamarck. 149 Crotalaria medicaginea Lam. 107
Euphorbia geniculata Orteg. 150 Crotalaria prostrata Rottl. Ex Willd. 108
Euphorbia hirta L. 151 Crotalaria sagittalis L. 109
Euphorbia hypersifolia L. 152 Crotalaria verrucosa L. 110
Euphorbia indica Lam. 153 Desmodium gangeticum (L.) DC. 129
Euphorbia microphylla Heyne ex. Roth. 154 Desmodium laxiflorum. DC. 130
Euphorbia thymifolia L. 155 Desmodium triflorum (L.) DC. 131
Phyllanthus maderaspatensis L. 255 Indigofera cordifolia Heyne. ex Roth. 177
Phyllanthus multiflorus Willd. 256 Indigofera linifolia (L.f.) Retz. 178
Phyllanthus niruri L. 257 Indigofera linnaei Ali. 179
Phyllanthus urinaria L. 258 Lathyrus aphaca L. 195
Phyllanthus virgatus Forst. 259 Lathyrus sativus L. 196
Sebastiana chamaelea (Linn.) Muell. 283 Medicago denticulata Willd. 220
Melilotus alba Medikus. 221
FABACEAE Melilotus indica (L.) All. 222
Aeschynomene indica L. 10 Mimosa invisa C. Mart. 229
Alysicarpus bupleurifolius (Linn.) DC. 19 Mimosa pudica L. 230
342
Phaseolus trilobus (L.) Aiton & auct. 253 LIMNOCHARITACEAE
Psoralea corylifolia L. 270 Limnocharis flava (L.) Buchenau. 206
Rhynchosia minima DC. 271
Tephrosia purpuria (L.) Pers. 314 LYTHRACEAE
Trifolium fragiferum L. 321 Ammannia baccifera L. 26
Trigonella polycerata auct. non Linn. 322
Vicia hirsuta (L.) S.F. Gray. 330 MALVACEAE
Vicia sativa L. 331 Abelmoschus ficulneus (L.) Wight & Arn. 1
Zornia gibbosa Spanoghe. 337 Abelmoschus moschatus Medik. 2
Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet. 3
FUMARIACEAE Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet. 4
Fumaria parviflora Lam. 160 Hibiscus lobatus (J.A. Murray) O. Ktze. 171
Hibiscus panduriformis Burm. f. 172
HYDROPHYLLACEAE Hibiscus vitifolius Linn. 173
Hydrolea zeylanica (L.) Vahl. 174 Malachra capitata (Linn.) Linn. 214
Malva parviflora L. 215
LAMIACEAE Malvastrum coromandelianum (L.) Garcke. 216
Anisomeles indica (L.) O. Kuntze. 29 Sida acuta Burm. f. 286
Anisomeles malabarica R.Br. 30 Sida cordata (Burm.f.) Borssum. 287
Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit. 175 Sida cordifolia (linn) 288
Leonitis nepetaefolia (L.) R. Br. 199 Sida rhombifolia L. 289
Leucas aspera Link. 202 Sida spinosa L. 290
Leucas cephalotes Roth. 203 Urena lobata L. 325
Leucas martinicensis R. Br. 204 Urena sinuata L. 326
Leucas zeylanica (L.) R. Br. 205 Waltheria indica L. 334

MARSILEACEAE
LILIACEAE Marsilea quadrifolia Linn. 217
Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav. 35

343
MENISPERMACEAE PAPAVARACEAE
Cocculus hirsutus (L.) Diels. 91 Argemone mexicana L. 33

MOLLUGINACEAE PEDALIACEAE
Glinus lotoides L. 162 Martynia annua L. 218
Glinus oppositifolius L. 163 Pedalium murex Linn. 249
Mollugo nudicaulis Lam. 232
Mollugo pentaphylla L. 233 PLUMBAGINACEAE
Plumbago zeylanica L. 263
NYCTAGINACEAE
Boerhavia diffusa L. 52 POACEAE
Boerhavia erecta L. 53 Apluda mutica L. 32
Arundo donax (L.) 34
ONAGRACEAE Avena ludoviciana (L.) Nees. 39
Ludwigia adscendens (L.) H. Hara. 211 Axonopus compressus Beauv. 40
Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) Raven. 212 Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Robyns 56
Ludwigia parviflora Roxb. 213 Brachiaria erusiformis (J.E.Smith) Griseb. 57
Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf. 58
OROBANCHACEAE Brachiaria reptans Gard. & Hubb. 59
Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze. 312 Chloris barbata Sw. 79
Coix barbata (Roxb.) R. Br. 92
OXALIDACEAE Coix lacryma-jobi L. 93
Biophytum sensitivum (L.) Don. 46 Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. 115
Oxalis corniculata L. 242 Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd 126
Oxlis martiana Zucc. 243 Dactyloctenium scindicum Boiss. 127
Desmostachya bipinnata Stapf. 132
PASSIFLORACEAE Dichanthium annulatum (Forssk.) Stapf. 133
Passiflora foetida L. 248 Digitaria sanguinalis L. (Scop.) 135
Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panzer. 136
344
Echinochloa colona (L.) Link. 139 PONTEDIRIACEAE
Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv. 140 Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.-Laub. 144
Echinochloa glabrescens L. 141 Monochoria vaginalis (Burm f.) Kunth. 234
Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertner. 145
Eragrostis unioloides (Retz.) Nees. Ex Steud. 147 PORTULACACEAE
Heteropogon contortus (L.) P. Beauv. 170 Portulaca oleracea L. 266
Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch. 176 Portulaca quadrifida L. 267
Ischaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merr. 191
Ischaemum rugosum Salisb. 192 PRIMULACEAE

Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees. 201 Anagallis arvensis L. 27

Oplismenus burmannii (Retz.) P.Beauv. 241

Paspalidium flavidum (Retz.) A. Camus. 245 RUBIACEAE

Paspalum dilatatum Poir. 246 Borreria hispida (L.) K. Schum. 54

Paspalum distichum auct. nm L. 247 Borreria pusilla (Wall.) DC. 55

Phalaris minor Retz. 252 Galium aparine L. 161

Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf. 265 Mitracarpus Villosus (Sw.) DC. 231

Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) W.D. Clayton. 272 Oldenlandia corymbosa L. 237

Saccharum spontaneum L. 278 Oldenlandia diffusa (Willd.) Roxb. 238

Sacciolepis indica (L.) 279 Oldenlandia herbacea (L.) Roxb. 239

Setaria glauca (L.) P. Beauv. 284

SALVINIACEAE
Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv. 285
Salvinia molesta Mitchell. 281
Sorghum halapense (L.) Pers. 301
Sporobolus diander (Retz.) P. Beauv. 308
SAPINDACEAE
Themeda triandra Forssk. 315
Cardiospermum halicacabum L. 66

POLYGONACEAE
SCROPHULARIACEAE
Antigonon leptopus Hook. & Arn. 31
Lindernia antipoda (L.) Alston. 207
Polygonum plebeium R. Br. 264
Lindernia ciliata (Colsm.) Panuell. 208
Rumex dentatus L. 275
345
Lindernia crustacea (L.) F. Muell. 209 TILIACEAE
Lindernia procumbens (Krock.) Philcox. 210 Corchorus aestuans L. 101
Mecardonia procumbens (Mill.) Swall. 219 Corchorus capsularis L. 102
Scoparia dulcis L. 282 Corchorus fascicularis L. 103
Sopubia delphinifolia (L.) Don. 300 Corchorus olitorius L. 104
Stemodia viscosa Roxb. 311 Corchorus trilocularis Auct. 105
Verbascum chinense (L.) Santapau Fl. 327 Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq. 323

SOLANACEAE TYPHACEAE
Datura metel L. 128 Typha angustata Bory & Chaubard. 324
Physalis minima L. 260
Physalis peruviana L. 261 VERBENACEAE
Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. 292 Clerodendron infortunatum Gaertn. 89
Solanum nigrum L. 293 Lantana camara L. 194
Solanum sisymbrifolium Lam. 294 Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene. 254
Solanum torvum Sw. 295 Stachytarpeta indica (L.) Vahl. 309
Solanum viarum Dunal. 296
Solanum xanthocarpum Schrad. & Wendl 297 VIOLACEAE
Ionidium suffruticosum Ging. 181
SPHENOCLEACEAE
Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn. 304 VITIACEAE
Cayratia trifolia (L.) Domin. 73
SPIGELIACEAE
Spigelia anthelmia L. 305 URTICACEAE
Pouzolzia zeylanica (L.) Bennet & R. Br. 268
STERCULIACEAE
Melochia corchorifolia L. 223 ZYGOPHYLLACEAE
Tribulus terrestris L. 317

346
 Glossary
Aculeate : Covered in prickles.
Acuminate : Tapering gradually to a protracted point.
Acute : Sharp or pointed.
Adaxial : Aowards the axis, referring to the surface of an organ that is closest to the axis in bud.
Annular : Arranged in or forming a ring.
Apiculate : A short sharp point, not rigid, found at the tip.
Ascending : Arched upwards in the lower part and becoming erect in the upper part.
Attenuate : Tapering gradually.
Auricle : An ear shaped appendage at the base of a leaf, leaflet or corolla lobe; or an ear-like outgrowth at the base of
the sheath of some grasses and other monocots.
Awn : A slender, bristle-like projection, e.g. from the back or tip of the glumes and lemmas in some grasses.
Axil : The angle between one part of a plant and another part, e.g. a branch and a leaf.
Beak : A prominent terminal projection, especially of a carpel or fruit.
Berry : A fleshy or pulpy indehiscent fruit with the seed(s) embedded in the fleshy tissue of the pericarp.
Biconvex : Convex on both sides.
Biennial : Completing the full cycle of germination to fruiting in more than one, but not more than two years, and
then dying.
Blade : Lamina; part of the leaf above the sheath or petiole.
Bract : A leaf-like structure, usually different in form from the foliage leaves, associated with an inflorescence or
flower.
Bracteole : A small bract-like structure borne singly or in a pair on the pedicel or calyx of a flower.
Broadly : Having a length:breadth ratio between 6:5 and 1:1; if the ratio is less then the shape is described as very
broadly.
Caducous : Falling early before associated organs are mature.
Caespitose : Growing densely in tufts; having short, closely packed stems.
Calcareous : Composed of or containing lime or limestone.
Calyx : The outermost floral whorl usually consisting of sepals or a calyx tube and calyx lobes.

347
Capitulum : A dense cluster of sessile, or almost sessile, flowers or florets.
Capsule : A dry fruit formed from two or more united carpels and dehiscing at maturity to release the seeds.
Caryopsis : The grass fruit, which has the seed coat united with the ovary wall.
Caudate : Having a narrow, tail-like appendage.
Cauline : Borne on the aerial part of a stem.
Chartaceous : Papery.
Cinereous : A gray color tinged with black.
Circumscissile : Opening by a transverse line around the circumference.
Climber : Growing more or less erect by leaning or twining around another structure.
Convolute : An arrangement of petals in a bud where each has one side overlapping the neighbouring petal.
Cordate : A 2-dimensional shape; heart shaped in outline, i.e. having the base broad and distinctly notched.
Costa : A thickened, linear ridge or the midrib of the pinna in ferns.
Crenate : With obtuse or rounded teeth which either point forwards or are perpendicular to the margin.
Crenulate : Minutely crenate.
Crisped : Very strongly undulate; margins which are wavy in a vertical plane, the waves themselves with
secondary waves.
Crustaceous : Hard, thin and brittle.
Culm : The aerial stem of grasses, sedges, rushes and other monocots, bearing the cauline leaves and the
inflorescence.
Cuneate : A 2-dimensional shape; obtriangular, i.e. wedge shaped.
Cuspidate : Somewhat abruptly and sharply concave and constricted into a cusp.
Cuspidulate : Constricted into a minute cusp.
Cylindric : A 3-dimensional shape; tubular or rod shaped with a length:breadth ratio of 2:1 to 3:2.
Cyme : An inflorescence in which each flower, in turn, is formed at the tip of a growing axis, further flowers being
formed on branches arising below.
Decumbent : Spreading horizontally with the apex growing upwards, referring to stems.
Decussate : Having paired organs with successive pairs at right angles to give four rows.
Dehiscent : Breaking open at maturity to release the contents.
Dentate : With sharp, spreading, rather coarse teeth standing out from the margin.

348
Denticulate : Finely dentate.
Depressed : Flattened as if pressed down from the top or end; applied to 2 or 3-dimensional shapes, e.g. ovate and
obovate or ovoid and obovoid which have a length:breadth ratio of less than 2:3.
Dichasium : A cyme in which the branches are opposite and approximately equal.
Dichotomous : Divided almost equally into two parts.
Dioecious : Having male and female unisexual flowers on different plants.
Divaricate : Widely spreading.
Echinate : Bearing stiff, stout, prickly hairs.
Ellipsoid : A 3-dimensional shape; elliptic in outline and with a length:breadth ratio between 3:2 and 2:1.
Elliptic : A 2-dimensional shape; oval in outline and with a length:breadth ratio between 3:2 and 2:1.
Elongate : Lengthened; stretched out.
Emarginate : Having a broad, shallow notch at the apex.
Entire : Without any incisions or teeth.
Erect : Upright; perpendicular.
Exserted : Protruding beyond some enclosing organ, e.g. referring to stamens which project beyond the corolla or
perianth, or to valves which extend beyond the rim of a capsular fruit. Sometimes the stamens are not
actually longer than the corolla or perianth but are exserted due to the spreading of the segments.
Farinose : Covered with mealy dust or powder.
Fascicle : A cluster.
Fetid : Having a heavy offensive smell.
Filiform : Thread-like.
Fimbriate : Fringed.
Flaccid : Limp and weak.
Flexuose : Zig-zagging, often referring to a stem.
Follicle : A dry fruit, derived from a single carpel and dehiscing along one suture.
Geniculate : Bent abruptly, with the structure of a knee.
Gibbous : Characterized by convexity; protuberant.
Glabrescent : Becoming glabrous.
Glabrous : Without hairs.

349
Glaucous : Blue-green in colour, with a whitish bloom.
Globular : A 3-dimensional shape; spherical or orbicular; circular in outline.
Hastate : With a pair of basal lobes which flare outwards; refers to a flat organ, most commonly a leaf.
Herb : A plant which is non-woody or woody at the base only, the above ground stems usually being
ephemeral.
Herbaceous : Herb-like; often applied to bracts, bracteoles or floral parts that are green and soft in texture.
Hirsute : With long and rather coarse or stiff hairs, the hairs being less rigid and erect than when referred to as
hispid.
Hispid : With stout, rigid or bristly, erect hairs.
Imparipinnate : Pinnately compound with a single terminal leaflet and hence with an odd number of leaflets.
Incised : Cut jaggedly with very deep teeth.
Incrassate : Obsolete fattened or swollen.
Indumentum : The type of hairiness commonly found on external parts of plants.
Involucre : A large bract or whorl of bracts surrounding a flower or an entire inflorescence.
Involute : With the margins inrolled on the upper (adaxial) surface, referring to a leaf or other flat organ.
Lactiferous : Forming or conveying milk or milky fluid.
Lanate : Covered with long hairs which are loosely curled together like wool.
Lanceolate : Lance shaped, much longer than wide, the widest point below the middle.
Leaflet : One of the ultimate segments of a compound leaf.
Ligule : Outgrowth from the inner junction of the grass leaf sheath and blade, often membranous, sometimes
represented by a fringe of hairs.
Linear : A 2-dimensional shape: narrowly rectangular with parallel sides and a length:breadth ratio of at least
12:1.
Lyrate : Pinnately lobed, with the terminal lobe the largest and the laterals progressively smaller towards the
base.
Margin : The edge of the leaf blade.
Mericarp : A 1-seeded portion of an initially syncarpous fruit which splits apart at maturity, e.g. in the Apiaceae.
Sometimes called a coccus.
Midvein : The main vascular supply of a simple leaf blade or lamina.
Monoecious : Having both male and female unisexual flowers on the same individual plant.

350
Mucro : A stiff or sharp, short projection of the midvein abruptly terminating an organ.
Mucronate : Abruptly tipped with a mucro, accompanied or not by a small amount of leaf tissue.
Muricate : With numerous short hard outgrowths.
Muriculate : With numerous minute hard outgrowths; a diminutive of muricate.
Narrowly : Having a length:breadth ratio between 3:1 and 6:1; if the ratio is more than 6:1 then the shape is described
as very narrowly, except in the case of very narrowly oblong which is termed linear.
Nut : Dry indehiscent 1-celled fruit with a hard pericarp.
Obcordate : A 2-dimensional shape; broad and notched at the tip; heart shaped but attached at the pointed end.
Oblanceolate : Lanceolate, with the more pointed end at the base.
Oblong : A 2-dimensional shape; rectangular with a length:breadth ratio between 3:2 and 2:1.
Obovate : A 2-dimensional shape: similar to ovate but attached at the narrower end and with a length:breadth ratio
between 3:2 and 2:1.
Obscure : Not clearly seen or easily distinguished.
Obtuse : Blunt or rounded at the apex, the converging edges separated by an angle greater than 90 degrees.
Ocrea : Sheath formed at the node of a stem by the fusion of two stipules.
Opposite : Describing leaves or other organs which are borne at the same level but on opposite sides of the stem; of
floral parts, on the same radius.
Orbicular : Of circular outline.
Ovate : A 2-dimensional shape; resembling a section through the long axis of an egg, attached near the broader
end and with a length:breadth ratio between 3:2 and 2:1.
Ovoid : A 3-dimensional shape; egg shaped; ovate in outline.
Palmate : Describing a leaf which is divided into several leaflets which arise from the same point.
Papillose : A small nipple like projection, such as a protuberance on the skin.
Pappus : A tuft (or ring) of hairs, bristles or scales borne above the ovary and outside the corolla in Asteraceae and
possibly representing the calyx; often persisting as a tuft of hairs on a fruit.
Paripinnate : Pinnate with an even number of leaflets and without a terminal leaflet. A tendril may be terminal on the
leaf.
Pedicel : The stalk of an individual flower. In a single-flowered inflorescence, may refer to a peduncle, or both
peduncle and pedicel when undifferentiated. Also used here for the stalk of a spikelet in Poaceae.
Peduncle : The stalk of an inflorescence.

351
Peltate : Attached to the stalk at a point within the margin, i.e. on the lower surface.
Peltate : Attached to the stalk at a point within the margin, i.e. on the lower surface.
Pendulous : Drooping; of ovules, attached at the top of the ovary and hanging downwards from an apical placenta.
Perennial : With a life span extending over more than two growing seasons.
Petiole : The stalk of a leaf.
Phyllaries : One of the involucral bracts subtending the flower head of a composite plant.
Pilose : With slightly stiffened distinct hairs ascending from the surface.
Pinnate : With the same arrangement as a feather; divided into pinnae; once-compound.
Pinnatifid : Lobed approximately halfway to midrib. If divided almost to the midrib, then described as deeply
pinnatifid or pinnatisect.
Pinnatisect : Lobed almost to base or midrib.
Procumbent : Trailing or spreading along the ground but not rooting at the nodes, referring to stems.
Prostrate : Lying flat on the ground.
Puberulent : Covered with very short fine straight erect hairs (puberulous).
Pubescent : Covered with short, soft hairs.
Raceme : An indeterminate inflorescence with a simple, elongated axis and pedicellate flowers.
Rachilla : The main axis of a grass spikelet.
Rachis : The main axis of the spike or other inflorescence of grasses; the axis of a pinna in a bipinnate leaf.
Radiate : Arranged around a common centre; used here especially to describe an inflorescence of Asteraceae with
marginal, female or neuter, ligulate ray-florets and central, perfect or functionally male, tubular, disc
florets.
Rambling : Putting out long shoots and growing over walls or other plants.
Ray : The marginal portion of the inflorescence of Asteraceae and Apiaceae when distinct from the disc.
Reflexed : Bent or turned downward.
Reniform : A 2-dimensional shape; kidney shaped in outline.
Reticulate : Forming a network or reticulum.
Rhizome : A creeping stem, usually below ground, consisting of a series of nodes and internodes with adventitious
roots.
Rhombic : A 2-dimensional shape; diamond shaped in outline with the broadest axis in the middle and with a
length:breadth ratio between 3:2 and 2:1.
352
Rosette : A tuft of leaves or other organs resembling the arrangement of petals in a rose, ranging in form from a
hemispherical tuft to a flat whorl.
Schizocarp : A usually dry fruit which splits longitudinally into indehiscent or tardily dehiscent parts (mericarps or
cocci).
Sedge : A plant of the family Apiaceae, Cyperaceae.
Segment : A free or almost free part or subdivision of an organ. Calyx and corolla segments are called sepals and
petals respectively. In the case of undifferentiated dicotyledonous flowers, the segments are called floral
segments.
Serrate : Toothed so as to resemble a saw; with regular, asymmetric teeth pointing forward.
Sessile : Without a stalk.
Shrub : A woody plant usually less than 5 m high and many-branched without a distinct main stem except at
ground level.
Simple : Not divided, e.g. applied to a leaf not divided into leaflets.
Sinuate : With deep wave-like indentations in a horizontal plane along the margin.
Solitary : Usually used to describe flowers which are borne singly, and not grouped into an inflorescence.
Spathe : A large bract ensheathing an inflorescence or its peduncle.
Spathulate : Spoon shaped; broad at the tip and narrowed towards the base.
Spike : An unbranched inflorescence of sessile flowers or spikelets.
Spikelet : The grass flowerhead, generally composed of 2 glumes and one or more florets.
Spine : A stiff, sharp, pointed structure, formed by modification of a plant organ.
Spinescent : Ending in a spine; modified to form a spine.
Stellate : Star shaped, usually referring to hairs with radiating branches.
Stipe : A stalk or support such as the petiole of a frond or the stalk of an ovary or fruit.
Stipitate : Having a stalk or stipe, usually of an ovary or fruit.
Stipule : One of a pair of leaf-like, scale-like or bristle-like structures inserted at the base or on the petiole of a leaf
or phyllode.
Stolon : The creeping stem of a rosetted or tufted plant, giving rise to another plant at its tip, or in Drosera a
vertical underground stem connecting the tuber with the above ground parts and bearing adventitious
roots.
Tendril : A slender organ formed from a modified stem, leaf or leaflet which, by coiling around objects, supports a
climbing plant.
353
Terete : Circular in cross-section.
Terminal : At the apex or distal end.
Tomentose : Covered with not very long cottony hairs, more or less felted together, shorter and less dense than
lanate.
Transverse : Broader than long; applied to 2 or 3-dimensional shapes, e.g. elliptic and oblong or ellipsoid and
obovoid which have a length:breadth ratio of less than 5:6.
Trifoliate : Having three leaves.
Triquetrous : Acutely 3-angled; triangular in cross-section with concave faces and each corner projected outwards so
that the organ has three distinct longitudinal ridges.
Truncate : With an abruptly transverse end as if cut off.
Tuft : A densely packed cluster arising from an axis.
Turbinate : Top shaped; inversely conic.
Umbel : An inflorescence in which the pedicels originate from one point on top of the peduncle and are usually of
equal length.
Undershrub : Subshrub; a small, usually sparsely branched woody shrub less than 1 m high.
Undulate : With an edge or edges wavy in a vertical plane; may vary from weakly to strongly undulate or crisped.
Unifoliolate : A compound leaf which has been reduced to a single, usually terminal leaflet.
Vaginate : Forming or enclosed in a sheath.
Valve : One of the parts produced by the splitting of a capsule when ripe or a part of the specialised opening of a
capsular fruit.
Verrucose : Warty.
Viscid : Sticky on the surface; coated with a thick, syrup-like secretion.
Whorl : A ring-like arrangement of similar parts arising from a common point or node.

354
 Abelmoschus ficulneus (L.) Wight & Arn.
Common Name : Native rosella
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect undershrub, grows to a height of 0.5

to 1.5 m.

Stem : Simple, and short hairy, sometimes prickly,

usually thick and fistular.

Leaves : 5-8 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, circular, heart-

shaped at base, toothed, rough on both sides, 3-
5 lobed.

Flowers : The flower stalks occur at the end of branches

or in leaf axils. They are covered with velvety
hairs. The flowers are 5-7 cm across. The
flowers have short stalks and are white,
turning pink, with a dark purple spot in the
centre.

Fruits : Capsule 3-3.5 cm long, 1.5-2 cm across, 5

angular, ovoid, simple, hairy, glabrescent,
valves membranous.

Seeds : 3 mm across, globular, black, glabrous to

stellate pilose.

Weed ID Manual 1
 Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.
Common Name : Musk mallow
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect, annual or biennial, hirsute herb or

undershrub.

Stem : 0.3-1.8 m tall with a stout taproot. Usually

clothed with long deflexed hairs.

Leaves : 6-22 cm long and 3-24 cm wide, cordate at base,

mostly orbicular to transversely elliptic in
outline, but variable in shape; lower ovate,
acute; upper palmately 3-7-lobed; margins
crenate, serrate or irregularly toothed, hairy on
both surfaces.

Flowers : Flowers usually solitary, axillary, sometimes in

few flowered racemes; corolla bright yellow
with a purple centre.

Fruits : Capsules 6.5-7.5 cm long, oblong-lanceolate,

acute, fulvous-hairy.

Seeds : Subreniform, black.

2 Weed ID Manual
 Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet.

Common Name : Florida keys Indian mallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit : Perennial herb or undershrub, 0.5-2 m tall.

Stem : Velvetty, branchlets viscid.

Leaves : 4-18 cm long and broad, densely stellate,

glutinous hairy on both sides mixed with
simple hairs, more so on the nerves beneath;
usually broadly ovate or ovate-cordate at base,
acute to acuminate at apex, crenulate-dentate
or serrate, yellowish, yellowish green to green.

Flowers : Orange-yellow or yellow; axillary, solitary.

Fruits : Schizocarp densely stellate, globose. Mericarps

27 -30, acute at the back, oblong, 10-12 mm
long, 6-8 mm broad.

Seeds : Reniform, 2-2.5 mm across, with minute,

shining, stellate hairs.

Weed ID Manual 3
 Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet.

Common Name : Country mallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect annual shrub, 1-2 m tall.

Stem : velvety-pubescent.

Leaves : Circular-ovate or heart-shaped with coarsely

crenate-serrate margins. The leaves are
alternately arranged, and have long stalks and
have velvety, soft, pale hairs on them.

Flowers : Orange-yellow flowers, 2-3 cm across, occur

solitary in axils, on long stalks.

Fruits : Circular in shape, consisting of 11-20 radiating

hairy carpels, brown when dry; each carpel is
flattened, somewhat boat shaped.

Seeds : Ovate or sub-orbicular, dull black.

4 Weed ID Manual
 Acalypha indica L.

Common Name : Indian copperleaf

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit : Erect annual herb; up to 60 cm tall.

Stem : Branches numerous, long, ascending, angular,

finely pubescent.

Leaves : 2.5 - 7.0 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad, ovate-

rhombic, with long petiole, arranged spirally;
blades acute, margins crenate-serrate.

Flowers : Flowers unisexual, stalkless, borne on

numerous lax, erect, elongate axillary spikes
longer than the leaves. Male flowers are
minute, crowded distally. Female flowers are
scattered along the inflorescence axis, each
subtended by a conspicuous semi-cupular leaf-
like, toothed, green bract, nearly 7 mm long.

Fruits : Capsules, three valved, covered with

persistent bracts.

Seeds : Ovoid, smooth and pale brown.

Weed ID Manual 5
 Acanthospermum hispidum DC.

Common Name : Bristly starbur

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Perennial herb or undershrub, 0.5-2 m tall.

Stem : Densely hairy, dichotomous (Y-shaped)

branching, branches numerous, long, ascending,
angular, finely pubescent.

Leaves : Elliptic, oblanceolate or obovate, 1.5-7 cm long

and 0.7-2 cm wide, acute or obtuse at apex,
attenuate and subpetiolate at base, margins
shallowly serrate, whitish pilose on both surfaces.

Flowers : Yellow, borne in heads in the forks of

dichotomous branches.

Fruits : Achenes triangular covered with stiff hooked

hairs and have either a straight or curved pair of
spines at the top.

6 Weed ID Manual
 Achyranthes aspera L.

Common Name : Devil's horsewhip

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : An erect or procumbent, annual or perennial

herb with spreading branches, usually up to 1
m tall, often with a woody base.

Stem : Angular, ribbed, pubescent, simple or

branched from the base, often reddish-
purplish tinged.

Leaves : Opposite, thick, ovate elliptic or obovate-

rounded, but variable in shape and size, 4-12
cm long and up to 8 cm wide, velvety-
tomentose.

Flowers : Greenish-white, numerous, in axillary or

terminal spikes up to 75 cm long; bracts
membranous, oblong, enclosed in the
hardened parianth.

Fruits : Utricle, oblong-cylindric, truncate at apex,

rounded at base.

Seeds : Reddish-brown, sub-cylindrical.

Weed ID Manual 7
 Aerva javanica (Burm.f.) Schult.

Common Name : Desert cotton

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit: Perennial herb, 0.3-1.5 m tall .

Stem: Frequently woody; simple or with long,
ascending, sometimes intricate branches. Stem
and branches terete, striate, more or less
densely whitish or yellowish-tomentose or
pannose, when dense the indumentum often
appearing tufted.
Leaves: Alternate, very variable in size and form, from
narrowly linear to suborbicular, densely
whitish or yellowish tomentose but usually
more thinly so and greener on the upper
surface, margins plane or more or less involute,
sessile or with a short and indistinct petiole.
Flowers: Flowers dioecious. Spikes sessile, cylindrical,
dense and stout to slender and interrupted
with lateral globose clusters of flowers. Male
plants always with more slender spikes.
Fruits: Capsule 1-1. 5 mm, rotund, compressed.
Seed: 0.9-1.25 mm, round, slightly compressed,
brown or black, shining and smooth or very
faintly reticulate.

8 Weed ID Manual
 Aerva lanata (L.) Juss.ex Schult.

Common Name : Mountain knot-grass

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : A semi erect, many branched, under shrub.

Stem : Grows up to 50 cm in height with woolly

branches arising from a woody base.

Leaves : Simple, alternate, short petioled, tomentose,

and become smaller in the flowering twigs;
finely pubescent above, white woolly beneath.

Flowers : Minute, sessile, greenish or creamy-white,

borne in axillary spikes, usually 3-4 together.

Fruits : Utricle greenish, round or ovoid, acute,

compressed.

Seeds : Kidney shaped, small and black.

Weed ID Manual 9
 Aeschynomene indica L.

Common Name : Indian jointvetch

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Annual undershrub.

Stem : Much branched, branches slender, glabrous,

slightly muricate with prickle like glandular
outgrowths.

Leaves : Leaves are compound, 5-10 cm long, with 15-30

pairs of narrow needle-like leaflets, 1-1.5 cm
long, rounded at the tips.

Flowers : Pale yellow flowers are borne in few flowered

racemes. Flowers are about 1 cm long, pea-
flower shaped.

Fruits : Pods linear, flat, glabrous, smooth, upper

margin entire and lower indented, 6-8 jointed
with central prominent wrinkles on each joint.

Seeds : 2-3 mm long, smooth and black.

10 Weed ID Manual
 Ageratum conyzoides L.

Common Name : Goat weed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Erect, often branched, annual herb and often

decumbent; up to 120 cm tall.

Stem : Much branched and rooting at the base; stem,

nodes and younger parts with rather long,
partly crispy hairs.

Leaves : Opposite or the upper alternate, broadly ovate

or rhomboid-ovate to triangular, 2-10 cm long
and 1.5-5 cm wide, apex subacute, margins
crenate, ciliate, base cuneate, more or less hairy
on both surfaces.

Flowers : Flowers in flat-topped, peduncled (5-17 mm

long) corymbs (60-70 flowers). Flowers white,
pale blue or violet with a disagreeable odour.

Fruits : Achene oblong, 5-angular, black with pale

base, glabrous or slightly hairy, 1.5-2 mm long
with awn-tipped, serrate pappus-scales.

Weed ID Manual 11
 Ageratum houstonianum Mill.

Common Name : Flossflower

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Annual, erect and often much branched herb;

0.3-1 m tall.

Stem : Leafy, pilose or villous with spreading hairs.

Leaves : Opposite, on rather long, slender petioles, very

thin, broadly deltoid-ovate, 4-8 cm long, obtuse
or acute, base cordate, coarsely crenate, thinly
villous-hirsute.

Flowers : Heads numerous, lavender or pale blue, many

flowered.

Fruits : Achenes black, 1.2 mm long.

12 Weed ID Manual
 Alternanthera bettzickiana (Regol.) Voss.

Common Name : Red calico plant

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : Perennial herb, 20-50 cm tall.

Stem : Erect or creeping, much branched, apical part

quadrangular, basal part cylindric, hairy at
apex and nodes.

Leaves : Green or red, or tinged red or yellow, oblong,

oblong-ovate, or spatulate, hairy when young,
glabrescent, base acuminate, margin undulate,
apex acute or obtuse, with a mucro.

Flowers : Heads 2-5, terminal or axillary, 5-10 mm,

sessile.

Fruits : Infructescence very much like the inflorescence,

i.e. consisting of tightly packed bracts
interspersed with pale hairs. Individual fruits
slightly more than 1 mm long, enclosed in the
persistent perianth segments and bracts.

Seeds : Discoid, about 1 mm diameter, testa brown.

Weed ID Manual 13
 Alternanthera brasiliana (L.) Kuntze.

Common Name : Brazilian joyweed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial.

Stem : Erect, villous, glabrate.

Leaves : Sessile; blade ovate to lanceolate, 1-7 0.7-1 cm,

herbaceous, villous.

Flowers : Terminal and axillary, pedunculate; heads

white, globose, 0.7-1 cm diameter.

Fruits : Utricle, included within tepals, brown,

ellipsoid, 2 mm, apex acute.

Seeds : Ovoid-oblong, 1.4 mm.

14 Weed ID Manual
 Alternanthera paronychioides A. St.-Hil.

Common Name : Smooth joyweed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : Prostrate, annual creeping herb.

Stem : Stem with long crisped hairs on the younger

parts.

Leaves : Leaf blade is inverted-lance shaped or spatula

shaped, 1.5-2 cm long and 0.3-0.5 cm wide, tip
obtuse to rounded.

Flowers : Stalkless flower-heads are ovoid to spherical,

often hairy at base with white papery flowers.

Fruits : Utricle orbicular

Seeds : Discoid, 1 mm across, faintly reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 15
 Alternanthera philoxeroides (Mart.) Griseb.

Common Name : Alligator weed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : A perennial herb which grows as an emerged,

aquatic plant, rooted in the soil or in the
substrate below shallow water.

Stem : Fistular.

Leaves : Dark-green waxy leaves which are lance-

shaped and opposite. They are 12-14 cm long
and 1.5-2.5 cm wide.

Flowers : The inflorescence is white, ball-shaped, 1.5 cm

in diameter and papery.

Seeds : Disc shaped to flattened wedge shaped, 0.7-0.9

mm diameter, reddish brown, smooth and
undulated.

Utricle membranous and rarely open to release the seed. It

does not always set viable seed under field conditions, but
reproduces vegetatively from axillary buds at each node.

16 Weed ID Manual
 Alternanthera pungens H. B & K.

Common Name : Khaki weed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : A perennial herb with stems prostrate, rarely

rising.

Stem : About 10-50 cm long, hairy sometimes rooting

at the nodes.

Leaves : Ovate to obovate, 0.5-4.5 cm long, 0.3-2 cm

broad, smooth to sparsely hairy.

Flowers : Flowers arise in stalkless, sparsely velvety

spikes with spiny bracts and bracteoles.

Fruits : 1.2-1.5 mm long, enclosed by the sepals.

Seeds : Discoid, 1 mm across, brown.

Weed ID Manual 17
 Alternanthera sessilis (L.) DC.

Common Name : Sessile joyweed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : A prostrate or procumbent, annual or

perennial herb.

Stem : The stems are generally prostrate, 0.2-1 m high,

with strong creeping tap roots, often rooting at
the nodes, sometimes floating, creeping or
ascending at the tips, cylindrical and slightly
hairy, with numerous erect branches.

Leaves : Simple, opposite, shortly petiolate or sessile,

broadly lanceolate or spatulate to almost linear,
0.6-5 cm long, and 0.3-1 cm wide. They are
attenuated at the base, and the apex is acute to
blunt, with entire, glabrous or pilose margins.

Flowers : Flowers inconspicuous, white, borne in small,

axillary, dense, sessile, silvery-white clusters of
compressed spikes.

Fruits : Utricle cordiform and strongly compressed.

Seeds : Dark-brown to black, disc-shaped and shiny,

about 0.8-1 mm in diameter.

18 Weed ID Manual
 Alysicarpus bupleurifolius (Linn.) DC.

Common Name : Sweet alyce clover

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An erect or decumbent-ascending, annual

herb.

Stem : Glabrous except a line of appressed hairs.

Leaves : Linear-lanceolate to oblong, often the lower

ones rounded, margins entire.

Flowers : Bluish pink in lax terminal racemes.

Fruits : Pod stipitate, subterete, glabrous, 4-gonous, 2-

6 jointed.

Seeds : Ovoid to rounded; smooth olive brown or

black.

Weed ID Manual 19
 Alysicarpus longifolius Wight & Arn.

Common Name : Long leaved alyce clover

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial.

Stem : Slightly striate, glabrous.

Leaves : Unifoliolate; petioles 3-10 mm long, leaflets 5-

15 cm long, 0.9-1.9 cm broad, oblong or
lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, base
subcordate, glabrous above, appressly hairy on
the nerves beneath.

Flowers : Inflorescence dense spicate raceme, 15-30 cm

long. Flowers yellow, flushed with red.

Fruits : Pods 0.9-1.3 cm long, 2-2.5 mm broad, shortly

stalked, slightly moniliform, terete-compressed,
4-6 jointed, minutely pubescent, reticulately
veined.

Seeds : Ovoid-oblong, 1.4 mm.

20 Weed ID Manual
 Alysicarpus monilifer (L.) DC.

Common Name : Alyce clover

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Low growing, much branched, annual or

perennial herb, 550 cm tall.

Stem : Much branched, branches pilose, hairs long

and spreading.

Leaves : Simple; ovate, elliptical or lanceolate, cordate

at the base, 2.57.5 cm long, prominently
nerved, glabrous or sparsely pubescent
beneath.

Flowers : Racemes spicate, axillary and terminal, 115

cm long; flowers lax to dense along racemes.

Fruits : Pods distinctly moniliform, 3- to 5-jointed, 12

cm long, calyx not longer than first joint;
glabrous or sparsely pubescent; articles 2.53
mm long and 23 mm wide, with a smooth to
reticulate surface sculpture.

Seeds : Ovoid, smooth, shining brown.

Weed ID Manual 21
 Alysicarpus ovalifolius (Schumach.) J. Leonard.

Common Name : Over-leafed alysicarpus

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Annual herb, erect-spreading, 20-60 cm tall.

Stem : Stiff and pubescent.

Leaves : Unifoliolate, leaflets 1-10 cm long, 0.6-3 cm

broad, elliptic or oblong to narrowly
lanceolate, acute to emarginate, mucronate,
puberulous.

Flowers : Inflorescence terminal or leaf-opposed or

paniculate, peduncle 3-4 cm long. Flowers
orange-buff to pink or reddish violet, rarely
whitish.

Fruits : Pod 1.8-2.5 cm long, 2-8-seeded, not

constricted, each 1-seeded part 2.5-4 mm long,
2.0-2.5 mm broad, puberulous.

Seeds : Brown, slightly compressed, oblong-ellipsoid.

22 Weed ID Manual
 Alysicarpus vaginalis (L) DC.

Common Name : White moneywort

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A decumbent-ascending or prostrate perennial

herb.

Stem : 30-90 cm tall with glabrous branches.

Leaves : Simple, variable in size and shape on a single

plant, 0.7-4 cm long and 0.7-1.5 cm wide,
broadly to narrowly oblong or obovate, base
subcordate or truncate, apex acute or
emarginate, usually hairy.

Flowers : Small, red or pinkish yellow, borne in pairs

subtended by a stipule-like bract, in lax,
downy, axillary or terminal racemes up to 5 cm
long.

Fruits : Pods nearly round or cylindrical, up to 2.5 cm

long, 6-9-jointed.

Seeds : Smooth, brownish-yellow, 2-mm in diameter.

Weed ID Manual 23
 Amaranthus spinosus L.

Common Name : Spiny pigweed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : An erect, branched, annual or perennial herb,

varying in colour from green to purple.

Stem : 30-60 cm tall with hard, straight, paired axillary

spines.

Leaves : Long-petioled, oblong, ovate-elliptic or

lanceolate, acute or obtuse, base cuneate,
generally 1-6 cm long and 0.5-2.6 cm wide.

Flowers : Minute, grayish-green, borne in dense axillary

clusters or terminal spikes.

Fruits : Dehiscent utricle.

Seeds : Oblong, 1.0-1.4 mm long, 0.7-1.0 mm wide,

black, compressed, shining.

24 Weed ID Manual
 Amaranthus viridis Hook. F.

Common Name : Slender amaranth

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 6 to 100 cm tall, glabrous to pubescent,

pubescent especially upwards.

Leaves : Glabrous or pubescent on the veins of the lower

surface; petioles long (up to 10 cm),
occasionally longer than the blade; blade ovate
to rhombic-oblong, 2-7 x 1.5-5.5 cm, base
tapered to blunt, tip rounded, minutely
mucronate, barely to clearly emarginate.

Flowers : Green, unisexual, male and female intermixed,

in slender axillary to terminal paniculate spikes
2-12 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, or in dense
axillary clusters in the lower part of the stem.

Fruits : Capsule nearly globose 1.25-1.75 mm long, not

rupturing or rupturing irregularly, surface
rough.

Seeds : 1-1.25 mm, round, slightly compressed, dark

brown to black with a paler thick border.

Weed ID Manual 25
 Ammannia baccifera L.

Common Name : Blistering ammannia

Family : Lythraceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 10-50 cm tall, some what 4-angled, slender,

smooth and more or less purplish.

Leaves : The leaves are oblong, oblanceolate, or

narrowly elliptic, about 3.5 centimeters long;
those on the branches are very numerous,
small, and 1 to 1.5 centimeters long with
narrowed base and pointed or somewhat
rounded tip.

Flowers : The flowers are small, about 1.2 mm long,

greenish or purplish, and borne in dense
axillary clusters.

Fruits : The capsules are nearly spherical, depressed,

about 1.2 mm in diameter, purple, and
irregularly circumssciss above the middle.

Seeds : The seeds are black.

26 Weed ID Manual
 Anagallis arvensis L.

Common Name : Scarlet pimpernel

Family : Primulaceae

Habit : A low-growing annual, up to 30 cm tall.

Stem : Branching, decumbent, repent, or erect,

herbaceous, 4-angled, glabrous to pubescent,
sometimes rooting at the nodes.

Leaves : Opposite, entire, sessile, ovate, to 2 cm long,

1.3 cm broad, clasping or not, with brown
speckles below, variously pubescent, margins
some what tuberculate.

Flowers : Solitary flowers arise from the area between the

stem and leaves (leaf axils) and occur on
relatively long stalks (pedicels); bright blue.

Fruits : Capsule, globose.

Seeds : 1.3 mm long, trigonous, brown.

Weed ID Manual 27
 Andrographis paniculata Wall.

Common Name : Kalmegh

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : An annual herb.

Stem : Much branched, 0.3-1 m tall; stem and branches

sharply quadrangular with longitudinal
furrows and wings on the angles of the
younger parts .

Leaves : Simple, opposite, short-petioled, glabrous,

elliptic to lanceolate, narrowed at both ends,
acute at apex, 2.5-8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide.

Flowers : Flowers small, white with purplish blotches or

rose-coloured, borne in lax, spreading terminal
and axillary panicled racemes.

Fruits : Fruit a linear-oblong, compressed capsule,

acute at both ends, 1.9 cm long and 0.3 cm wide.

Seeds : Numerous, subquadrate and yellowish-

brown.

28 Weed ID Manual
 Anisomeles indica (L.) O. Kuntze.

Common Name : Indian catmint

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit : An erect, camphor-scented, variable herb or

woody shrub, up to 2 m tall.

Stem : Quadrangular and softy pubescent.

Leaves : Thick, broadly ovate, 4-10 cm long and 2-6 cm

wide, base rounded or subcordate, apex acute,
margins crenate-serrate, hairy to softy
pubescent on both sides; petioles 1-7.5 cm long.

Flowers : Flowers borne in dense whorls in leaf axils

below and in dense, spiked inflorescences, 8-32
cm long above; light purple or dark red with a
deep blue lower lip.

Fruits : Nutlets 2.5 mm long, broadly ovoid with

rounded ends, smooth, polished, turning black
when ripe.

Weed ID Manual 29
 Anisomeles malabarica R.Br.

Common Name : Malabar catmint

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit : An erect, aromatic herb, up to 2 m tall.

Stem : Softly white tomentose.

Leaves : Oblanceolate, serrate, acute or acuminate, base

truncate, cartaceous.

Flowers : Pink-violet, in axillary and terminal dense

spikes.

Fruits : Nutlets 2.5 mm long, broadly ovoid with

rounded ends, smooth, polished, turning black
when ripe.

30 Weed ID Manual
 Antigonon leptopus Hook. & Arn.

Common Name : Coral vine

Family : Polygonaceae

Habit : Climbing perennial vine.

Stem : The vine can easily grow to 30-40 ft (9-12 m) in

length and uses its tendrils to rapidly climb up,
over and upon any nearby object.

Leaves : Ovate, heart-shaped and undulate, soft,

pronounced veins on underside.

Flowers : Inflorescence paniculate, the branches bearing

flowers in clusters along the rachis, the rachis
tip tendrillate; flowers reddish or light pink, or
white. The actual flowers are tiny but the sepals
are larger and provide the brilliant colors that
range from white to rose-pink to deep coral
flowered varieties.

Fruits : Achenes conical, sharply 3-angled above.

Weed ID Manual 31
 Apluda mutica L.

Common Name : Mauritian grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit : A rambling perennial grass.

Stem : Culm up to 3 m long, rooting from the lower

nodes, glabrous, much branched in upper part,
branches flexuous.

Leaves : Leaf-blades are flat, 5-25 cm long, 2-10 mm

wide, cut-off at the tip.

Flowers : Inflorescence a leafy panicle, solitary, simple

raceme or spike, each enclosed in a spathe.
Spikelets in trios, one sessile, two pedicelled.

Fruits : Caryopsis ellipsoid.

32 Weed ID Manual
 Argemone mexicana L.

Common Name : Mexican prickly poppy

Family : Papavaraceae

Habit : An erect prickly annual herb.

Stem : Up to 1.2 m tall with yellow sap.

Leaves : Sessile, with slightly incised undulated

margins and white veins, spiny on margins,
midrib and veins beneath.

Flowers : Yellow, 2.5-7.5 cm in diameter, with 4-6 petals.

Fruits : Capsules 2-4 cm long, elliptic or oblong,

prickly, rarely unarmed.

Seeds : Numerous, small, round, blackish-brown,

deeply reticulate and pitted.

Weed ID Manual 33
 Arundo donax (L.)

Common Name : Giant reed

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A very tall and robust, bamboo-like, perennial

grass.

Stem: Spreading clumps of thick culms.

Leaves: 30-60 cm long, 5 cm wide, arranged

conspicuously in two opposite ranks on the
culms. The margins are sharp to touch.

Flowers: Inflorescence is a 30-60 cm long, purplish,

aging to silver, plume that stands above the
foliage.

34 Weed ID Manual
 Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav.

Common Name : Onion weed

Family : Liliaceae

Habit : An annual, slender herb with a short root stock.

Stem : Erect, hollow, cylindrical stem up to 50 cm

high, shorter than scape.

Leaves : Numerous, all basal, hollow, slender,

gradually acuminate to a point, 10 to 40 cm long
the base sheathing, smooth to minutely hairy,
seeming to rise as a 'bunch' from the soil,
usually shorter than scapes.

Flowers : Scapes many from the base, much branched,

30-60 cm. Flowers laxly racemose, light purple,
with white fading.

Fruits : Capsule globose, faintly 3-gonous

Seeds : Triangular ,pitted, black grayish in color, 2-3

mm long, finely and shortly papillose.

Weed ID Manual 35
 Asteracantha longifolia (L.) Nees.

Common Name : Waterleaf

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : An erect, thorny, strigose-hispid herb; up to 60

cm tall.

Stem : The stem is square and thickened at nodes and

hairy. The bark is dark brown.

Leaves : Whorled, lanceolate, dentate, acuminate, base

cuneate, scabrous, sub-sessile.

Flowers : Pink or blue-purple; sessile, in axillary whorls,

surrounded by yellowish stiff spines.

Fruits : Capsule 1 cm. long, linear oblong, pointed

glabrous, and about 8 seeded.

36 Weed ID Manual
 Asystasia gangetica T. Anders.

Common Name : Ganges primrose

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : Suberect to climbing subshrub.

Stem : 4-angled with pilose to glabrescent twigs.

Leaves : Lamina elliptic-ovate to deltoid, 2-5 x 1.5-3.5

cm with up to 2 cm long petiole, grey-
pubescent to glabrate, base truncate to
rounded, the margins crenulate to entire,
apically acute or shortly acuminate.

Flowers : Flowers in terminal, 1-sided, lax raceme;

yellow to creamy-white with purple streaks on
throat.

Fruits : Capsule oblong, up to 2.8 cm long including

stipe, pubescent, 4-seeded.

Seeds : Irregularly obovate, 3-5 x 0.5-3 mm,

tuberculate rugose.

Weed ID Manual 37
 Atylosia scarabaeoides (L.) Benth.

Common Name : Showy pigeonpea

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A perennial climber or trailer, forming thick

mats.

Stem : Stems often reddish, covered with short,

ferruginous pubescence. Root-stocks woody
and slender.

Leaves : Trifoliate, leaflets up to 4.5 cm long and 2.2 cm

wide, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, acute to obtuse,
subcoriaceous, grey-pubescent and strongly
nerved beneath.

Flowers : Yellow, 0.8 cm long, in 1-2 cm long corymbose

racemes, or reduced to 1-2 on short peduncles.

Fruits : Pods up to 2.5 cm long and 6 mm wide, densely

clothed with golden, oppressed hairs, 2-6
seeded.

Seeds : 5 mm long and 3 mm wide, reddish, mottled

brown or black.

38 Weed ID Manual
 Avena ludoviciana (L.) Nees.

Common Name : Wild oat

Family : Poaceae

Habit : An annual tufted grass with erect culms.

Stem : Culm height varies from 25 to 120 cm.

Leaves : Blades are coloured dark green, grow up to 40

cm and show a membraneous ligule, which is
1-6 mm long and often irregularly toothed.
Sheaths are smooth or slightly hairy, especially
in younger plants.

Flowers : The inflorescence is a loose, open panicle with

2-3-flowered pedicelled spikelets. As a specific
trait of Avena species, lemmas have 2-3 awns
arising from the back which are mostly dark-
coloured, bent and 3-4 cm long. Each of the 2-3
florets has an oval abscission scar at its base,
causing them to fall separately.

Grains : 6-8 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 39
 Axonopus compressus (Sw.) Beauv.

Common Name : Blanket grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A creeping, stoloniferous, perennial grass.

Stem: Culms erect, 15 to 16 cm high, solid, laterally compressed,
the stolons strongly branched, rooting at each node.
Leaves: Leaf sheaths strongly compressed, finely hairy along the
outer margin, otherwise smooth, the nodes densely
pubescent; ligule very short, fringed with short hairs;
blade lanceolate, flat, 4 to 15 cm long, 2.5 to 15 mm wide,
with broadly rounded base and blunt apex, often fringed
with hairs;.
Flowers: Inflorescence with slender peduncles, two to four, seldom
eight, developing successively, the secondary and
succeeding inflorescences remaining hidden inside the
sheath but ultimately projecting beyond the sheath.
Peduncle smooth, bearing at its apex two slender, one-
sided spikes, usually 5 to 8 cm long, often with a third
below them, rarely a fourth.
Fruits: Spikelets oblong, rather acute, 2 to 2.5 mm long, 1 to 1.25
mm wide, pale green or tinged with purple, solitary on
alternate sides of rachis and forming two rows, ciliate on
the margins.
Grains: Caryopsis yellowish brown, about 1.25 mm long.

40 Weed ID Manual
 Barleria cristata L.

Common Name : Crested Philippine violet

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : An erect or diffuse herb, up to 1 m tall.

Stem : Appressed hairy, densely hairy at the nodes;

branches and bracteoles spiny.

Leaves : Elliptic-oblong to lanceolate, 6.3-13 cm long

and 2.5-4.5 cm wide, acute or acuminate, hairy
on both sides.

Flowers : Bluish-purple, pink or white, pubescent

outside, born in 1-4 flowered axillary and
terminal spikes.

Fruits : Capsules 1.6 cm long, ellipsoid or ablong, acute

at both ends, 4-seeded.

Seeds : 4 mm in diameter, orbicular, compressed,

silky-hairy.

Weed ID Manual 41
 Barleria prionitis L.

Common Name : Porcupine flower

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : A much-branched, perennial, usually prickly

shrub, up to 3 m tall.

Stem : With whitish stems and rounded branches.

Leaves : Opposite, elliptic, acuminate, lineolate, bristle-

tipped, entire, 9-18 cm long and 2.5-5.7 cm
wide, glabrous above, young leaves often
pubescent beneath.

Flowers : Orange-yellow or cream-coloured, sessile,

borne in axillary foliaceous bristle-tipped
bracts.

Fruits : Capsules ovoid, 1.8-2.5 cm long with a tapering

beak, 2-seeded.

Seeds : Compressed, ovate, clothed with silky

appressed hairs.

42 Weed ID Manual
 Bergia ammannioides Hayne ex Roth.

Common Name : Jerry water-fire

Family : Elatinaceae

Habit: Annual, 8-35 cm tall, erect or somewhat

decumbent, branched herb of moist places.

Stem: Stem and branches mostly pinkish, glandular

pubescent, rarely sub-glabrous.

Leaves: Opposite, subsessile or shortly petiolate,

oblong-obovate, elliptic oblong, lanceolate or
oblanceolate, 4-25 mm long, 2-15 mm broad,
apex acute, margin minutely and distinctly
serrate, glandular pubescent or almost
glabrous.

Flowers: Inflorescence dense or loose axillary fasciculate

cyme of 6-12 or more flowers. Flowers reddish.

Fruits: Capsule reddish, ovoid or subglobose, margins

of the valves incurved.

Seeds: Seeds minute, with rounded ends, dark brown,

shining, somewhat reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 43
 Bergia capensis L.

Common Name : Cape ash

Family : Elatinaceae

Habit: Herbs annual, 15-30 cm tall.

Stem: Prostrate and rooting in lower part, terete,

slightly fleshy, glabrous; branches erect.

Leaves: Leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate, obovate-

lanceolate, or obovate, 1-4 0.2-1 cm, papery,
base acuminate, margin minutely serrulate or
subentire, apex acute or attenuate.

Flowers: Flowers arranged into small, axillary cymes,

subsessile or with short pedicel 1-5 mm, very
small, pink.

Fruits: Capsule subglobose, 1.8 mm in diameter,

longitudinally 5-grooved, 5-septicidal.

Seeds: Oblong, minute, angular or transversely

striate.

44 Weed ID Manual
 Bidens pilosa L.

Common Name : Spanish needles

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect, simple or much- branched annual or

perennial herb, 60-90 cm tall.

Stem : Glabrous or more or less pubescent,

quadrangular, grooved; branches opposite.

Leaves : Very variable, sometimes trifoliate, but usually

consisting of 2 sub opposite pairs of leaflets and
a larger, deeply 3-lobed, terminal leaflets.

Flowers : The inflorescence is an isolated or grouped

pedunculated capitula, emerging from the leaf
axil. Heads borne singly at the ends of long,
slender, nearly leafless branches; narrow,
discoid, the disk 4-6 mm wide at anthesis; ray
florets white or pale-yellow and disk florets
yellow.

Fruits : Achenes 0.8-1.7 cm long, linear, quadrangular,

slightly tapering towards the apex, black,
glabrous, bearing a few pale stiff hairs on the
angles in the upper part; pappus bristles 2-4,
straw-coloured, 2-3 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 45
 Biophytum sensitivum (L.) Don.

Common Name : Life plant

Family : Oxalidaceae

Habit : An annual herb, up to 25 cm tall.

Stem : Slender, erect with a rosette of leaves a top.

Leaves : Sensitive to touch, pinnately compound.

Crowded into a rosette atop the stem, 3.8-12.7
cm long, leaflets 3-12 pairs, opposite, oblong,
the terminal pair is the largest.

Flowers : Dimorphic, yellow, 0.8 cm across, on peduncles

of varying lengths up to 10 cm.

Fruits : Capsules globose or elliptic, shining, 5-valved,

approximately 3.5 mm long.

Seeds : Minute with obliquely transverse tubercled

ridges.

46 Weed ID Manual
 Blainvillea acmella (L.) Philipson.

Common Name : Para cress flower

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An erect herb, 0.3-1.2 m high.

Stem: Much branched, bristly-hairy.

Leaves: Elliptic to ovate, up to 12 cm long, 8 cm wide,

base wedge-shaped, margins serrate-crenate,
tip sharp, 3-veined from base, bristly-hairy.

Flowers: Flower heads are slightly elongated, bell-

shaped. Ray florets are whitish, 35 in number,
irregularly 3-parted, 10-12 mm long. Disc
florets whitish, 5-parted, 3-4 mm long.

Fruits: Achenes are narrowly obovoid, 35 mm long,

pappus of weak bristles up to 1 mm long, on the
edge of a shallow cup.

Weed ID Manual 47
 Blepharis maderaspatensis (L.) Roth.

Common Name : Creeping Blepharis

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : A small pubescent herb.

Stem : Wiry prostrate stems, rooting at the nodes.

Leaves : Leaves in whorls of 4, unequal-sided, elliptic to

obovate, 2.5-5 cm long.

Flowers : White, pink or pale blue with a yellow spot on

the lower lip, borne solitary or in clusters of 2-3
in leaf axils, surrounded by white membranous
bracts with green veins, the apical margins of
which are furnished with hairy bristles.

Fruits : An ovoid capsule, 0.6-0.8 cm long, 2-seeded.

48 Weed ID Manual
 Blumea lacera (Burm.f) DC.

Common Name : Malay blumea

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect, glandular, annual herb with a strong

odor.

Stem : Simple or branched, hairy, very leafy and 1-2 ft

in height .

Leaves : Obovate or oblanceolate, 5-12 cm long, 2-6 cm

wide, smaller towards the top, stalked, and
toothed or (rarely) lobulated at the margins.

Flowers : The bright yellow flowering heads are about 8

mm across, borne on short axillary cymes, and
collected in terminal, spike-like panicles.

Fruits : The achenes are not ribbed, somewhat 4-

angled and smooth.

Weed ID Manual 49
 Blumea oxyodonta DC.

Common Name : Spiny leaved blumea

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Perennial herb, 15-40 cm high.

Stem : Stems usually numerous, prostrate or

ascending, finely pubescent.

Leaves : Sessile, elliptic to obovate, 1-5 0.5-1.5 cm, both

surfaces sparsely to densely villous and
stipitate glandular, base cuneate, margin with
a few sharp subspinose teeth, apex acute.

Flowers : Capitula few in terminal and axillary panicles;

yellow.

Fruits : Achenes white, unribbed, 0.6 mm long; pappus

white, 3-4 mm.

50 Weed ID Manual
 Blumea wightiana DC.

Common Name : Soft blumea

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An aromatic herb, growing up to 80 cm tall.

Stem: Eerect, simple or branched from the base,

glandular-hairy.

Leaves: Ovate-oblong, 19.5 cm long, 0.65 cm wide,

sharply toothed, densely silky hairy on both
surfaces, upper leaves smaller, acute to
apiculate, base acute, sessile, lower leaves
rounded or obtuse, base tapering, petiolate.

Flowers: Rose to pink flowers are borne in dense flat-

topped clusters. Flower-heads are bell-shaped.

Fruits: Achenes oblong, 0.5 mm long, sparsely to

densely hairy; pappus white, 24 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 51
 Boerhavia diffusa L.

Common Name : Red spiderling

Family : Nyctaginaceae

Habit : A very variable, diffusely branched, pubescent

or glabrous, prostrate herb.

Stem : Creeping, often purplish, swollen at the nodes,

up to 1.2 m long with a stout woody root stock.

Leaves : Long-petioled, ovate or oblong-cordate, entire

or sinuate, usually whitish and smooth
beneath and rough green on upper surface.

Flowers : Flowers red, pink or white, borne in small

umbels arranged in axillary and terminal
panicles.

Fruits : Ovate, oblong, 1.3 cm long, five-ribbed,

pubescent, viscid, glandular.

52 Weed ID Manual
 Boerhavia erecta L.

Common Name : Erect spiderling

Family : Nyctaginaceae

Habit: Perennial, erect herb, up to 1 m tall.

Stem: Terete, thickened at nodes, green or purple,

commonly sticky.

Leaves: Leaves in unequal pairs, petiolate, glandular,

finely hairy, 10-40 x 5-25 mm (larger leaves),
and 5-30 x 4-20 mm (smaller leaves).

Flowers: Inflorescence of axillary and terminal panicles,

or umbel-like, with 3-9 flowers per group;
flowers white to pink.

Fruits: 4 mm long, thin-walled, ribbed, becoming

sticky when wet.

Seeds: Club-shaped, longitudinally-ribbed.

Weed ID Manual 53
 Borreria hispida (L.) K. Schum.

Common Name : Shaggy buttonweed

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit : A procumbent herb with a stout taproot.

Stem : Quadrangular, hirsute, hispid or subglabrous,

usually with long internodes.

Leaves : Leaves subsessile, 1.3-5 cm long and 0.8-2 cm

wide, oblong or elliptic, apex acute, scabrid,
pubescent or nearly glabrous with scabrid or
ciliate margins.

Flowers : Blue, pale mauve or white, 4-6 together in a

whorl within a stipular cup.

Fruits : Capsules 5 mm long, hard, usually hairy,

ellipsoid, rounded at both ends.

Seeds: 3-4 mm long, oblong or ovoid, ventrally

grooved, granulate, brown.

54 Weed ID Manual
 Borreria pusilla (Wall.) DC.

Common Name : Tiny false buttonweed

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit: Annual herb, 5-20 cm tall.

Stem: Mostly unbranched, quadrangular, angles

scabrid.

Leaves: Opposite and verticillate, 2-5 x 0.5-0.7 cm linear

or narrowly elliptic, more or less sessile, acute
and attenuate, margin and midrib beneath
scabrid, with 2-3 pairs of lateral nerves.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary with dense globose

heads, 5-10 mm in diameter; flowers white.

Fruits: Capsule 2-2.5 mm long, narrowed at base,

pubescent above, glabrous below.

Seeds: Polished, shining, 1.75-2 x 0.7 mm.

Weed ID Manual 55
 Brachiaria deflexa (Schumach.) Robyns

Common Name : Annual brachiaria

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Tufted annual, 15-125 cm high.

Stem: Weak, ascending, culms.

Leaves: Leaf-blades flat, 4-25 cm long and 4-22 mm

wide, rounded to the base.

Flowers: Inflorescence a false panicle of 4-24 often

compound racemes on an axis, 5-18.5 cm long,
racemes 2-10 cm in length with a triquetrous
rhachis.

Fruits: Spikelets pedicelled, borne in pairs, one of a

pair on a longer pedicel (up to 15 mm long)
than the other; spikelets broadly elliptic,
glabrous to pubescent 2.5-3.5 mm long with a
short stipe up to 0.5 mm long.

56 Weed ID Manual
 Brachiaria erusiformis (J.E.Smith) Griseb.

Common Name : Sweet signal grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Annual grass.

Stem: Spreading culms rooting at the lower nodes.

Flowering culms up to 45 cm high.

Leaves: Blades slightly hairy, flat, usually less than 7 cm

long and only up to 4.5 mm wide.

Flowers: Panicle 5-7 cm long with several appressed to

ascending racemes up to 2.3 cm long; rachis
pubescent.

Fruits: Spikelets about 2.5 mm long, slightly hairy.

Weed ID Manual 57
 Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf.

Common Name : Browntop millet.

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Annual, mostly 10-70 cm tall.

Stem: Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves: Flat, lanceolate leaf-blades 2-25 cm long and 4-

25 mm wide.

Flowers: Inflorescence of 3-25 racemes on an axis, 3-10

cm long. Racemes, 1-10 cm in length, the longer
ones branched, bearing paired short pedicelled
spikelets on a triquetrous rhachis.

Fruits: Spikelets elliptic, 2.5-3.5 mm long, acute to

cuspidate.

58 Weed ID Manual
 Brachiaria reptans Gard. & Hubb.

Common Name : Running grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Annual grass.

Stem: Usually with decumbent stems, rooting at the

nodes; culms 15-60 cm high.

Leaves: Leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate,

2-7 cm long, 3-15 mm wide.

Flowers: Inflorescence of 5-15 racemes on an axis, 1-8 cm

long; racemes 14 cm long, bearing paired
spikelets crowded on a triquetrous rhachis
with hirsute pedicels.

Fruits: Spikelets narrowly ovate to broadly elliptic,

1.5-2.2 mm long, glabrous, acute, without a
stipe.

Weed ID Manual 59
 Cabomba aquatica (Piotr Kuczynski)

Common Name : Yellow cabomba

Family : Cabombaceae

Habit: Submersed and floating-leaved aquatic plant.

Stem: Stems emerge at intervals from slender roots.

Leaves: Lamina of the floating leaves peltate, broadly

elliptic to ovate, margins entire. Divisions of
submerged leaves three-dimentionally
ramifid, non-planar, terminal divisions narrow
and linear. Young floating leaves raised 0.5 cm
above surface of water by thick petiole

Flowers: Solitary, raised above the water surface on a

long pedicel; yellow

60 Weed ID Manual
 Caesulia axillaries Roxb.

Common Name : Pink node flower

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Glabrous, erect or decumbent herb.

Stem : 15-45 cm tall.

Leaves : 5-15 cm long, lanceolate-oblong or narrowly

lanceolate, semi-amplexicaul.

Flowers : Pale blue, lilac or white in globose, compound

heads.

Fruits : Achenes obovoid, dark brown, ribbed,

flattened.

Weed ID Manual 61
 Calotropis gigantea (L.) Aiton.

Common Name : Crown flower

Family : Asclepiadaceae

Habit: Large shrub, which looks like a small tree; up to

5 m tall.

Stem: Woody with yellowish-white bark. Young

stems and branches covered with soft, loosely
appressed, whitish, waxy or some times
powdery pubescence.

Leaves: Fleshy, obovate or obovate-oblong, apex acute,

rarely rounded, base cordate, 6-20 cm long and
3-8 cm wide, glaucous green, smooth above,
cottony below.

Flowers: 14-15 mm long and 3-4.5 cm in diameter;

clusters of waxy flowers that are either white or
lavender in colour. Each flower consists of five
pointed petals and a small, elegant "crown"
rising from the centre.

Fruits: A follicle.

Seeds: Broadly ovate, flattened, brown in color 2.5-3.2

cm long including the white tuft of hairs at the
pointed end.

62 Weed ID Manual
 Calotropis procera (Aiton) Dryand. ex.

Common Name : Swallo-wort

Family : Asclepiadaceae

Habit : A hardy, erect, pubescent evergreen shrub.

Stem : Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves : Leaves subsessile, broadly ovate, ovate-

oblong, elliptic or abovate, acute or mucronate,
slightly cordate and auricled at base, cottony-
pubescent when young, glabrous when full-
grown, 5-23 cm long and 4-9 cm wide, pale
green above, white tawny beneath.

Flowers : White to pink, tinged with purple.

Fruits : Follicle subglobose, ellipsoid or ovoid,

recurved, generally 10-14 cm long.

Seeds : Numerous, ovoid, acute narrowly margined,

light brown, with a white tuft of silky hair
(coma) at the pointed end.

Weed ID Manual 63
 Cannabis sativa L.

Common Name : Hemp

Family : Cannabaceae

Habit : Annual herb, usually erect; up to 5 m tall.

Stem : Stems variable, with resinous pubescence,

angular, sometimes hollow.

Leaves : Basal leaves opposite, the upper leaves

alternate, stipulate, long petiolate, palmate,
with 3-11, rarely single, lanceolate, serrate,
acuminate leaflets up to 10 cm long, 1.5 cm
broad.

Flowers : Flowers monoecious or dioecious, the male in

axillary and terminal panicles, apetalous;
female flowers in the axils and terminally with
5 yellowish petals.

Fruits : A brown, shining achene, variously marked or

plain.

64 Weed ID Manual
 Cardamine hirsuta L.

Common Name : Hairy bittercress

Family : Brassicaceae

Habit : An erect annual or biennial herb, up to 40 cm

high.

Stem : Stem arise from basal rosette of leaves;

glabrous, green or sometimes purplish.

Leaves : Leaf has about 5-7 roundish, sometimes stalked

leaflets on each side and a larger one at the end.

Flowers : Occurs in clusters at the end of the flowering

stem; small, white.

Fruits : Siliqua noticeably overtop the unopened

flowers; narrow, compressed.

Weed ID Manual 65
 Cardiospermum halicacabum L.

Common Name : Balloonvine

Family : Sapindaceae

Habit : An annual or sometimes perennial climber.

Stem : Pubescent.

Leaves : Leaves alternate, deltoid, biternate, 3-8 cm

long, petioles 2-3.8 cm long; leaflets deeply
dentate or lobed, acuminate, lateral leaflets
oblong or ovate, terminal leaflets rhomboid-
lanceolate.

Flowers : Flowers white, 3-4 mm long, in few-flowered

umbellate cymes, with a pair of peduncles
modified into tendrils.

Fruits : Capsules depressed-pyriform, 3-valved,

covered with bladder-like calyx, winged at the
angles.

Seeds : Globose, black, smooth, 4-6 mm in diameter,

with a small white, heart-shaped aril.

66 Weed ID Manual
 Cassia absus L.

Common Name : Pig's senna

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 15-60 cm tall, stems and branches covered with

grey, bristly, viscous hairs.

Leaves : Leaves paripinnate; rachis bearing a linear

gland between leaflets of one or both pairs;
leaflets 2 pairs, membranous, 1.6-4 cm long and
0.8-2.5 cm wide (the terminal pair the largest),
elliptic to elliptic-obovate, apex rounded, base
asymmetrical.

Flowers : Yellow or reddish-yellow, borne in narrow

leaf-opposed, few-flowered racemes, 2-13 cm
long.

Fruits : Pods compressed, thin, linear oblong, 2.5-4.5

cm long, clothed with bristly hairs, elastically
dehiscent.

Seeds : 5-8 per pod, obovate or rhombic, dark brown,

shining.

Weed ID Manual 67
 Cassia mimosoides L.

Common Name : Feather-leaved cassia

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A diffuse, erect, annual or perennial herb.

Stem : Up to 1 m high, pubescent.

Leaves : Leaves 4-10 cm long, with a concave gland just

below the lowest pair of leaflets; upper surface
of rachis usually serrate-or crenate between the
leaflets; leaflets generally 30-50 pairs, crowded,
overlapping, linear-oblong, rigidly coriaceous,
2-9 mm long and 0.5-2 mm wide, apex acute,
mucronate.

Flowers : Yellow, solitary or in groups of 2-3, axillary.

Fruits : Pods flat, linear or linear-oblong, moderately

pubescent, dehiscent, about 3.5 cm long and 0.6
cm wide.

Seeds : Brown, rhombic, 2-4 mm long and 1-2 mm

wide.

68 Weed ID Manual
 Cassia occidentalis (L.) Link.

Common Name : Coffee senna

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An erect, fetid, woody herb or undershrub.

Stem : 60-150 cm tall, smooth, purplish or green.

Leaves : Alternate, pinnate, 15-20 cm long, stipulate

with a sessile dark brown gland near the base of
the petiole; leaflets 3-5 pairs, opposite, short-
stalked, membranous, ovate or lanceolate, 3-9
cm long and 1.5-4 cm wide, base rounded, apex
acute or attenuate, glabrous above, glaucous
beneath.

Flowers : Yellow, in short, few-flowered axillary or

terminal racemes.

Fruits : Pods recurved, glabrous, compressed, 10-13

cm long and 0.8 cm wide.

Seeds : Dark olive-green, ovoid, compressed, smooth,

hard, shiny seeds, 6 mm long and 4 mm wide.

Weed ID Manual 69
 Cassia pumila Lam.

Common Name : Dwarf cassia

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A prostrate, suberect or erect herb.

Stem : Numerous, spreading, 30 cm long; branches

slender, clothed with white hairs.

Leaves : Leaves 2-5 cm long, rachis hairy, common

petiole 3-4 mm long with a stalked gland on the
petiole below; leaflets 10-20 pairs, 6-13 mm
long and 2.5-3 mm wide, linear-oblong, very
unequal-sided, apex rounded and apiculate,
nerves conspicuous beneath.

Flowers : Yellow, usually solitary or 2-3 together, supra-

axillary; pedicels very short and slender.

Fruits : Pods 2.5-3.8 cm long and 0.4-0.5 cm wide, with

oblique partitions between the seeds, linear,
flat, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs.

Seeds : Brown, obovoid-cuneate, compressed,

rectangular, shiny.

70 Weed ID Manual
 Cassia tora (L.) Roxb.

Common Name : Sicklepod

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A fetid, annual herb or undershrub.

Stem : 0.3-1 m tall with glabrous branches.

Leaves : Leaves 6-12.5 cm long; leaflets in 2-4 opposite

pairs with a conical gland between each of the
two lowest pairs of leaflets; blades 1.5-5 cm
long and 1.5-2.5 cm wide, membranous, ovate-
oblong, apex acute to subacute, often
mucronate, base acute to asymmetrically
rounded.

Flowers : Usually in pairs, on very short axillary

peduncle; pale yellow, upper petal 2-lobed and
the others entire.

Fruits : Pods stout, 4-angled, 15-25 cm long, containing

25-30 seeds.

Seeds : 4-5 mm long, rhomboidal, yellowish brown to

tan red, shiny.

Weed ID Manual 71
 Catharanthus pusillus (Murr.) G. Don.

Common Name : Tiny periwinkle

Family : Apocynaceae

Habit : An erect, glabrous annual herb.

Stem : Up to 60 cm tall, much branched with 4-angled

branches.

Leaves : Leaves lanceolate, 2-7 cm long and 0.5-2 cm

wide, apex acuminate; petioles 1.5-5 mm long.

Flowers : Solitary or in pairs, white.

Fruits : Small, divaricate, membranous follicles, in

pairs.

Seeds : Subcylindrical, black and ribbed.

72 Weed ID Manual
 Cayratia trifolia (L.) Domin.

Common Name : Bush Grape

Family : Vitaceae

Habit : A perennial climber.

Stem : Up to 7 m long and 4.5 cm in diameter; stems

woody at the base only.

Leaves : Alternate, trifoliate; tendrils slender, leaf-

opposed; leaflets thick, generally 3.8-5.7 cm
long and 2.2-3.2 cm wide, ovate-lanceolate to
obovate or rotund-ovate, apex acute,
mucronate, base rounded, obtuse or acute,
margins crenate to serrate, more or less
pubescent on both surfaces.

Flowers : Borne in branched, divaricate, pubescent, long-

peduncled, axillary or terminal cymes, up to 8
cm long and broad.

Fruits : Berries white, globose or turbinate, fleshy, 1.2-2

cm long, 2-4 seeded.

Seeds : Triangular, rounded and rugose on the back,

cuneate on the face.

Weed ID Manual 73
 Celosia argentea L.

Common Name : Cock's comb

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : Up to 1 m tall with angular stems and grooved

branched.

Leaves : Linear-lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate,

acuminate, narrowed at the base, entire, up to
12 cm long and 4 cm wide.

Flowers : White or pink, glistening, borne in feathery,

conical to cylindrical spikes.

Fruits : Membranous utricle.

Seeds : 1.3-1.5 mm long, 1.0-1.2 mm wide, glossy

black, slightly reticulate.

74 Weed ID Manual
 Centella asiatica L.

Common Name : Asiatic pennywort

Family : Apiaceae

Habit: Perennial herb.

Stem: Prostrate, slender, creeping with long stolans

and nearly glabrous or hairy on young parts.

Leaves: Cordate or hastate or orbicular or reniform or

sub entire or palmately lobed consisting of long
petiole and small stipules. Leaf blades are
dentate, crenate with thick radiate veins and
dark green in color. Leaves are glabrous on both
surfaces.

Flowers: Inflorescence simple umbel of 3 6 flowers at the

ends of slender peduncles arising from the axils
of leaves and much shorter than petioles
supported below by an involucre of 2boat
shaped membranous persistent bracts. Flowers
are small, sessile and dark pink in color.

Fruits: Carpels oblong, subcylindric, curved and less

in length, much laterally compressed, readily
separating into 2 indehiscent halves (mericarps)
united by a very narrow plane of junction.

Weed ID Manual 75
 Centrosema pubescens Benth.

Common Name : Butterfly pea.

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: Vigorous, trailing, twining and climbing

perennial herb.

Stem: Very leafy and slightly hairy.

Leaves: Trifoliate; leaflets dark green elliptic or ovate-

elliptic, obtuse or shortly obtusely acuminate,
about 4 x 3.5 cm, slightly hairy, especially on
the lower surface. Stipules long, persistent.

Flowers: Large and showy, borne in axillary racemes.

Each flower has two striate bracteoles. Flowers
bright or pale lilac on either side of a median
greenish-yellow band with numerous dark
violet stripes or blotches.

Fruits: Pod linear with prominent margins, 7.5 to 15

cm long, flat, thick, straight or slightly twisted,
acuminate, dark brown when ripe, containing
up to 20 seeds.

Seeds: Shortly oblong to squarish with rounded

corners, 4-5 x 3-4 mm, brownish-black, mottled
darker blotches.

76 Weed ID Manual
 Chenopodium album L.

Common Name : Common lambsquarter

Family : Chenopodiaceae

Habit : A polymorphous, non-aromatic, erect herb.

Stem : 0.3-3 m tall with angled stems that are often

striped green, red or purple, clammy to the
touch.

Leaves : Leaves very variable in size and shape,

rhomboid, deltoid to lanceolate, upper leaves
entire, lower ones toothed or irregularly lobes,
10-15 cm long, with petioles often as long as
leaf blades.

Flowers : Green, borne in clusters forming a compact or

loosely panicled axillary spike.

Fruits : Utricle.

Seeds : Round, compressed, black and shining.

Weed ID Manual 77
 Chenopodium murale L.

Common Name : Nettle-leaved goosefoot

Family : Chenopodiaceae

Habit: An erect or prostrate and ascending, bushy, rather

stout, herbaceous annual, up to 90 cm high.
Stem: Usually branched from the base, branches
ascending; glabrous to sparsely farinose. stems
occasionally red-striped.
Leaves: Alternate along the stems, dark green; 1-10 cm
long, 1-5.5 cm wide, deltoid to rhombic-ovate,
apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate to truncate or
subcordate, margins coarsely and irregularly
sinuate-dentate or laciniate.
Flowers: Flowers in small glomerules, in lax or dense
axillary and terminal, short, cymose panicles,
some arising from the lower leaf axils. Flower
clusters covered with a mealy substance.
Fruits: Utricle with membranous pericarp; pericarp
adherent to seed.
Seeds: Horizontal, tiny, about 1.5 mm in diameter, lens-
shaped/disk-shaped, margins acute with
conspicuous thin rim, dull black, surface finely,
shallowly puncticulate.

78 Weed ID Manual
 Chloris barbata Sw.

Common Name : Purple chloris

Family : Poaceae

Habit : A tufted, erect, annual or short-lived perennial

grass.

Stem : 0.3-1.0 m or more tall, largely glabrous. The erect and

branching stems, which are sometimes bent at the
base, are smooth and usually flattened. They are
purple or pink at the base, simple or branched, 3-
5-noded, rooting at the lower nodes.

Leaves : The leaf blades are flat and narrow, linear-

lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 2-3 mm wide and
usually bluish-green with rough edges. The
sheaths are smooth and 2-6 cm long; The ligule is
0.5-1.0 mm long, membraneous and fringed with
short hairs.
Flowers : A whorl of 5-15 digitate spikes which are densely
clustered. The spikes are usually ascending,
purple and 5-8 cm long with three-flowered
spikelets (one fertile flower). These are purplish
and densely overlapping, with three slender
awns.
Grain : Pale brown, tapering at both ends and 1-2 mm
long, enclosed within the persistent lemma and
palea.
Weed ID Manual 79
 Chromolaena odorata L. R.M. king & H. Rob

Common Name : Siam weed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A herbaceous to woody perennial with a bushy

habit which forms a very dense thicket.

Stem : Up to 2 m tall. Terete and become woody. Twigs

are slightly striolate longitudinally, pubescent,
opposite-decussate.

Leaves : Simple, opposite-decussate and without stipules.

They are rhomboid-ovate to ovate with an acute
apex and a cuneate base. The blades are trinerved
a few millimetres after the base, roughly crenate-
serrate beyond their maximum breadth, slightly
pubescent above and pubescent with numerous
small yellow dots below.

Flowers : Capitula are grouped in 1, 3 or 5 convex

trichotomic corymbs, 5-10 cm in diameter, at the
end of the twigs. Colour ranges from pale-lilac to
white.

Fruit : Cypsela is composed of a 3-4-mm-long fusiform

blackish achene, with five beige barbelate ribs,
overtopped by a pappus of about 30 barbelate
beige capillary bristles which are 4 -5 mm long.

80 Weed ID Manual
 Chrozophora plicata (Vahl) A. Juss. ex Spreng

Common Name : Giradol

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Prostrate or more or less erect, annual or

perennial herb, up to 50 cm.

Stem: Branched. Most parts densely covered in greyish

stellate hairs.

Leaves: Rhombic-ovate, up to 7 5 cm with a long petiole,

plicate-undulate, especially when young, 3-5
veined from the base with 2 dark purple glands at
the base; margin more or less entire or obscurely
toothed.

Flowers: Flowers in leaf-opposed or pseudo-axillary

inflorescence, covered in stellate hairs, unisexual.
Male flowers orange-yellow or pinkish; female
flowers, crimson-red.

Fruits: 5 9 mm, 3-lobed, densely covered in stellate

hairs, reddish or bluish-purple when ripe.

Weed ID Manual 81
 Chrozophora rottleri Klotzsch.

Common Name : Rottler's chrozophora

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit : An erect herb, up to 60 cm high.

Stem : Lower part of stem is naked, upper part hairy.

Leaves : Stalked, 3.5-9.5 cm long, 2.3-8 cm wide, ovate to

circular, with wavy margin. The leaves are
densely hairy on both sides.

Flowers : Small, yellowish. Male flower petals ovate.

Female flower sepals triangular, acute.

Fruit : A capsule.

82 Weed ID Manual
 Cichorium intybus L.

Common Name : Chicory

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An erect or subscandent annual herb up to 1m

high.

Stem: Glabrous to sparsely strigose and scabrous,

herbaceous, branching, erect, with milky sap,
from a massive taproot.

Leaves: Alternate. Basal leaves lyrate pinnatifid, 30 cm

long, 6 cm wide, dentate, pubescent above and
below, hirsute on midrib below. Cauline leaves
lanceolate to linear, clasping, entire, much
reduced.

Flowers: Inflorescence - Typically 1-3 axillary flowers in

upper portion of stems. Some flowers terminal.
Lower flowers with reduced leaf (bract)
subtending. Upper flowers with no bract or bract
reduced and scalelike. Blue to lilac.

Fruits: Achenes -2mm long; pappus of short scales.

Weed ID Manual 83
 Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.

Common Name : Canada Thistle

Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A perennial herb spreading rapidly by horizontal

roots which give rise to aerial shoots.

Stem : 30-150 cm tall, slender, green, freely branched.

Leaves : Alternate, the base sessile and clasping or shortly

decurrent; leaves generally oblong in outline,
margin variable from entire to deeply pinnately
segmented, spiny.

Flowers : Plants dioecious, all heads of a plant either male

or female. Male heads globular, somewhat
smaller than the flask-shaped female heads.
Florets all tubular, rose-purple to pinkish, less
commonly white. Florets of female heads 23-26
mm long; florets of male heads 12-14 mm long.

Fruit : Achenes 2.5-4 x 1 mm, straight or slightly curved,

straw or light-brown. Pappus copious, white,
feathery, 20-30 mm long on mature achenes.

84 Weed ID Manual
 Cleome chelidonii Linn.

Common Name : Celandine spider flower

Family : Capparidaceae

Habit : Annual herb.

Stem : Base stout, branchlets pubescent.

Leaves : Basally 5-7 foliate, apically 3-foliate; leaflets

obovate.

Flowers : Rose colored, in racemes.

Fruit : Capsule obscurely striate.

Seeds: Small, spirally round, brown to black.

Weed ID Manual 85
 Cleome gynandra L.

Common Name : African spider flower

Family : Capparidaceae

Habit: Annual, erect, glandular-pubescent herb, 50-100

cm tall.

Stem: Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node, more

or less densely hairy.

Leaves: Five foliate; leaflets subsessile, 3-9 X 1.5-4 cm,

elliptic-obovate, apex subacute, base cuneate,
pubescent .

Flowers: At first corymbose, elongating into a densely

bracteate racemes. Flowers white

Fruits: Capsule 5-9 cm long, cylindric, striate with 5 mm

long beak; glandular, pubescent.

Seeds: 1.2 mm across, rugose, dark brown.

86 Weed ID Manual
 Cleome monophylla L.

Common Name : Spindle pod

Family : Capparidaceae

Habit: An erect stocky annual herb, 60 cm height,

Stem: Branched, pubescent with some hairs gland-

tipped.

Leaves: 27.5 x 0.32.5 cm., linear-lanceolate to oblong,

acute or subacute at the apex, rounded or slightly
cordate at the base, entire, pubescent on both
sides with hairs often glandular.

Flowers: Inflorescence a raceme, elongating in fruit;

flowers pale rose or mauve.

Fruits: Capsule up to 10 cm. long, narrowly linear,

puberulous, straight or slightly curved,
narrowed to both ends with up to 6 longitudinal
nerves on each valve.

Seeds: Dark brown, 1.8 mm in diameter, radially ridged

with the ridges bearing minute puberulous
incrustations.

Weed ID Manual 87
 Cleome viscosa L.

Common Name : Tick weed

Family : Capparidaceae

Habit : An erect, simple or sparsely branched, unarmed

annual herb.

Stem : Up to 1.5 m tall with a strong, penetrating and

unpleasant odour; stems grooved, densely
clothed with glandular or simple hairs.

Leaves : Leaves 3-5 foliate, densely glandular-pubescent

when young, petioles of the lower leaves 2.5-5 cm
long, those of the upper leaves 0.4-3.8 cm; leaflets
elliptic-oblong or obovate, 2-4.3 cm long and 0.8-
2.5 cm wide, base cuneate to attenuate, apex acute
or obtuse.

Flowers : Flowers various shades of yellow or white to

pinkish or purple, 1.3 cm long, borne in the axils of
reduced leaf-like bracts in lax corymbose
racemes.

Fruit : A slender, erect, glandular pubescent cylindrical

capsule, 5-12 cm long.

Seeds: About 1 mm in diameter, granular, black or dark

brown.

88 Weed ID Manual
 Clerodendron infortunatum Gaertn.

Common Name : Hill glory bower

Family : Verbenaceae

Habit: A shrub.

Stem: Erect, 0.54 m high, with no branches.

Leaves: Simple, opposite; both surfaces sparsely villous-

pubescent, elliptic, broadly elliptic, ovate or
elongate ovate, 3.520 cm wide, 625 cm long,
dentate.

Flowers: Inflorescence in terminal, peduncled, few-

flowered cyme; flowers white with purplish pink
or dull-purple throat, pubescent.

Fruits: Berry, globose, turned bluish-black or black when

ripe, enclosed in the red accrescent fruiting-calyx.

Weed ID Manual 89
 Clitoria ternatea L.

Common Name : Asian pigeonwings

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A annual or perennial herb.

Stem: Slender, climbing or suberect.

Leaves: Odd-pinnate, leaf rachis up to 8 cm long; leaflets

5-7, 2-5 cm long and 1.2-3 cm wide, elliptic, apex
obtuse, base cuneate to rounded, obtuse or retuse,
glabrous above, pubescent beneath.

Flowers: Flowers ranging in colour from white to deep

blue, axillary, solitary; peduncles 0.6-1 cm long.

Fruits: Pod linear-oblong, flat, 10 cm long and 1 cm wide,

sharply beaked, appressed hairy.

90 Weed ID Manual
 Cocculus hirsutus (L.) Diels.

Common Name : Ink berry

Family : Menispermaceae

Habit: A scandent tomentose climber.

Stem: Straggling with striate branches.

Leaves: Variable in shape; the lower leaves of the main

branches larger, sometimes 3-5-lobed, upper
leaves smaller, narrowly to broadly ovate to
elliptic; pubescent on both surfaces.

Flowers: Small, unisexual, pale yellow; male with 6

stamens, borne in small axillary panicles; female
with 4-6 carpels, borne 2-3 together in axillary
clusters.

Fruits: A compressed pea-sized drupe, purplish-black.

Seeds: Circular-coiled, dull-white to grey, surface rough.

Weed ID Manual 91
 Coix barbata (Roxb.) R. Br.

Common Name : None

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A tall, robust, branching, monoecious perennial

grass.

Stem: Culms 0.9-1.9 m tall with softly bearded nodes.

Leaves: Linear, usually 15-30 cm long and 0.6-2.2 cm

wide, apex acuminate, midrib stout, margins
scabrid; leaf sheaths long, smooth or hairy; ligule
a narrow ridge.

Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal panicle of racemose

spikelets on slender peduncle, male at the top and
female below.

Seeds: Grain enveloped in thickened lower legumes, 5-7

mm long.

92 Weed ID Manual
 Coix lacryma-jobi L.

Common Name : Jobs tears

Family : Poaceae

Habit : A stout , much-branched annual grass.

Stem : Culms 0.9-1.5 m tall, spreading below, rooting at

the lower nodes, internodes smooth, polished.

Leaves : 10-50 cm long and 1.5-5 cm wide, narrowed from

a broad cordate base to an acuminate tip, smooth
on both surfaces, margins spinulosely serrate;
midrib stout; sheaths long, smooth; ligule a very
narrow membrane.

Flowers : Borne in 2.5-6.3 cm long racemes, nodding or

drooping from long peduncles; male racemes 1.5-
4 cm long, erect, spikelets mostly paired; female
racemes enclosed within a beadlike auricle,
which is white to green or bluish, globose, 0.6-1.2
cm long, hard.

Fruit : Utricle, oblong-cylindric, truncate at apex,

rounded at base.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish brown.

Weed ID Manual 93
 Commelina benghalensis L.

Common Name : Tropical spiderwort

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit : A creeping or procumbent annual herb, 60-90 cm

long.

Stem : Dichotomously branched with diffuse branches,

often rooting at nodes.

Leaves : Leaves 2.5-7.5 cm long and 1.3-3.8 cm wide, ovate

or oblong, apex obtuse, base unequal-sided,
rounded, cuneate or cordate, sessile or short-
petioled, pubescent or villous on both surfaces.

Flowers : Spathes 1-3 together, funnel-shaped, auricled on

one side, pubescent or hirsute; flowers blue,
borne in branched cymes.

Fruit : Capsules 0.6 cm long, pyriform, membranous.

Seeds: Oblong, closely pitted.

94 Weed ID Manual
 Commelina diffusa L.

Common Name : Climbing dayflower

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit : A creeping herb.

Stem : Rooting at the nodes.

Leaves : Sessile, ovate or lanceolate, entire, acuminate,

base sub cordate, chartaceous.

Flowers : Blue, 1-3 in cymes; spathes complicate.

Fruit : Broadly oblong acuminate.

Seeds: Tuberculate, reticulate, brown.

Weed ID Manual 95
 Commelina forskaolii Vahl.

Common Name : Rats ear

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit: Herbs, annual or perennial, up to 30 cm tall.

Stem: Erect to ascending, mat-forming.

Leaves: Oblong or lanceolate-oblong to oblong-elliptic,

1.5-6 x 0.4-1.1 cm, margins strongly undulate,
completely glabrous or adaxially sparsely
pilose.

Flowers: Distal cyme usually exserted, 1-flowered;

spathes solitary, pedunculate, strongly
inflated; flowers blue.

Fruits: Capsules 3-locular, 2-valved.

Seeds: Brown, smooth, 2.5 mm long.

96 Weed ID Manual
 Convolvulus arvensis L.

Common Name : Field bindweed

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit : A herbaceous perennial growing from a very

deep root system. Shoots develop from
adventitious buds on the deep root system at
almost any depth down to 1 m.

Stem : Slender, to 1.5 m long, twining anticlockwise,

glabrous or finely pubescent.

Leaves : Alternate, petiolate, variable in shape, lanceolate

or ovate to narrow-oblong, 1.2-5.0 cm long, acute
at the apex, entire but often hastate-sagittate at the
base, glabrous or pubescent with scattered
crisped hairs.

Flowers : White or pink, axillary, solitary, peduncles, 2.5-5

cm long, slender with a pair of small linear bracts
at the apex from which the pedicels arise; pedicels
3-25 mm long.

Fruit : Capsules 6-8 mm in diameter, globose, glabrous.

Seeds: Subtrigonous, dark reddish-brown, glabrous or

puberulous.

Weed ID Manual 97
 Convolvulus pluricaulis Choisy.

Common Name : Aloe weed

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: A slender, procumbent or suberect herb.

Stem: Up to 50 cm long with a woody rootstock.

Leaves: 1.2-2.5 cm long, linear-oblong or the upper

elliptic, apex obtuse, mucronate, base tapering,
villous on both sides, leaf margins slightly hairy,
short-petioled.

Flowers: Axillary or on short lateral branches, sessile or

short-pedicelled, 1-3 together; pale rose or rose-
yellow.

Fruits: An ellipsoid or globose capsule, 0.3 cm long,

smooth.

Seeds: Brown to black, 5-7 mm, oval, flat to slightly

concave on one side, convex on the other side;
minutely puberulous.

98 Weed ID Manual
 Conyza bonariensis (L.) Cronquist.

Common Name : Asthmaweed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: Erect perennial, 20-75 cm tall.

Stem: Erect with stiff hairs, branching at the base,

decreasing upwards.

Leaves: Narrow, lanceolate, grey to green color, 2-6 cm

long, coarsely toothed and covered with fine
hairs; upper leaves are smaller and linear.

Flowers: Inflorescence much branched; capitulum is

greater than 2 mm in diameter.

Fruits: Cypsela linear shaped, 1.5 mm long, straw

colored, covered in hairs with 16-20, noticeably
longer, at the top that are white or pink.

Weed ID Manual 99
 Conyza Canadensis (L.) Cronq.

Common Name : Canadian horseweed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual herb, up to 1 m high.

Stem: Stout central stem unbranched, ridged and

covered with long white hairs.

Leaves: Alternate around the stem, (appearing almost

whorled) differ little in length except beneath the
inflorescence, creating a columnar effect. Leaves
narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, with a few
teeth towards the outer tip, and fine white hairs
along the margins.

Flowers: Several flowering stems appear at the apex,

which branches frequently and spread upward
and outward, terminating in a multitude of tiny
composite flowers. Disc florets yellow and ray
florets white.

Fruits: Achenes are light brown and have tuft of white or

light brown hairs.

100 Weed ID Manual

 Corchorus aestuans L.

Common Name : East Indian jew's mallow

Family : Tiliaceae

Habit : An erect or spreading, much branched, annual

herb, 20-60 cm tall.

Stem : Stem and branches purple, pilose.

Leaves : Lanceolate to ovate, 2-9.5 cm long, 1-5 cm broad,

oblique or obtuse at the base, serrate, basal
serratures prolonged into setaceous appendages
or not.

Flowers : Cyme antiphyllous, very shortly pedunculate,

mostly 2, rarely 3-flowered. Flowers golden
yellow, 1 cm across.

Fruit : Capsules solitary or paired, with 3 fairly stout

wings, 10-25 mm long, 4-6 mm in diameter,
truncate and terminating in 3, bifid, radiating,
3-7 mm long beaks at apex, 3-loculed, locules
transversely septate or aseptate.

Seeds: Blackish-brown, angular, rough, obliquely

truncate at both ends.

Weed ID Manual 101

 Corchorus capsularis L.

Common Name : White jute

Family : Tiliaceae

Habit : A large, glabrous, annual herb or undershrub.

Stem : Up to 3 m tall.

Leaves : 3-5 costate, ovate-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate,

5.5-15 cm long, 1.5-8 cm broad, acute or
acuminate, coarsely serrate, basal serratures
backwardly prolonged into setaceous
appendages.

Flowers : Yellow, 8-10 mm across, pedicellate.

Fruit : Capsule subglobose-globose, 10-12 mm in

diameter, beakless and depressed at apex,
scabrous, ridged, tuberculate or muricate, 5-
loculed, locules aseptate.

Seeds: Cuneiform, 2 mm long, brown, glabrous.

102 Weed ID Manual

 Corchorus fascicularis L.

Common Name : Tall wild jute

Family : Tiliaceae

Habit: Annual, sub-erect, 50-60 cm tall herb.

Stem: Woody with scaly bark.

Leaves: 3-costate, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate to

narrowly ovate, 1.5-6 cm long, 0.5-2 cm broad,
glabrous, serrate, basal serratures not prolonged
into filiform appendages, obtuse.

Flowers: Cyme a fascicle of 2-8 flowers, antiphyllous, very

shortly pedunculate. Flowers yellow.

Fruits: Capsules 2-8 in each fascicle, sessile, 1-1.5 cm

long, with 1-2 mm long entire beak, somewhat
triangular, pubescent, 3-loculed.

Seeds: Wedge shaped, 1.5 mm long, angular, black,

obliquely truncate at both ends.

Weed ID Manual 103

 Corchorus olitorius L.

Common Name : Jew's mallow

Family : Tiliaceae

Habit : An erect, subglabrous, annual or biennial herb,

up to 2 m tall.

Stem : Basally woody, branched.

Leaves : 3-5 costate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2.2-9

cm long, 1.8-4.2 cm broad, glabrous except the
scattered hairy veins, serrate, basal serratures
prolonged into filiform deflexed appendages,
acute or acuminate.

Flowers : Cyme 1 or 2-flowered, antiphyllous, shortly

pedunculate. Flowers yellow, 12-15 mm across;
subsessile.

Fruit : Capsules 1 or 2 together, 2-7.2 cm long, with 4-5

mm long, entire beak, 4-5 mm across, 10-angled,
glabrous, 5-loculed, locules transversely septate.

Seeds: Greenish-black, triangular, ovate, 2 mm long.

104 Weed ID Manual

 Corchorus trilocularis Auct.

Common Name : Cotton weed

Family : Tiliaceae

Habit : An erect or suberect, annual herb, 30-60 cm tall.

Stem : Stem and branches glabrous.

Leaves : 3-4 costate, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate

or somewhat elliptic-obovate, 1.5-9 cm long, 0.6-
2.2 cm broad, crenate-serrate, basal serratures
prolonged into filiform spreading appendages or
not, acute.

Flowers : Cyme 1-4 flowered, antiphyllous, short

peduncled. Flowers yellow, 1 cm across,
subsessile.

Fruit : Capsules 1-3 together, erect, cylindrical, 1.5-4 cm

long, 2 mm in diameter, not ribbed, glabrous,
terminated by 3 spreading bifid tips, 3-loculed,
locules aseptate.

Seeds: Angular, obliquely truncate at both ends, black.

Weed ID Manual 105

 Coronopus didymus (L.) Sm.

Common Name : Lesser swine-cress

Family : Brassicaceae

Habit: An annual herb.

Stem: Repent, decumbent, or ascending, multiple from

the base, radiating from a central point; glabrous,
terete, green.

Leaves: Alternate, petiolate, pinnate, 4-5 cm long, 2 cm

broad, glabrous. Divisions of the leaves opposite,
lobed or devided again, acute, linear-elliptic to
linear oblong.

Flowers: Inflorescence a small raceme, up to 4 cm long,

opposite to one of the stem leaves, compact.
Flowers minute, greenish.

Fruits: Glabrous, 3-4 mm broad, 2 mm long, slightly

compressed, sub-globose, 2-seeded.

106 Weed ID Manual

 Crotalaria medicaginea Lam.

Common Name : Trefoil rattlepod.

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A herb or shrub, prostrate to erect, 1 m tall.

Stem: Slender, branched, appressed silky pubescent;

stipules filiform, 2-3 mm .

Leaves: 3-foliate; leaflets oblanceolate, obovate-oblong,

or ovate-oblong, abaxially densely silky
pubescent, adaxially glabrescent, base cuneate,
apex obtuse, truncate or retuse.

Flowers: Racemes terminal or leaf opposed, many

flowered; flowers yellow.

Fruits: Pods globose, 3-5 mm in diameter, slightly

exserted beyond the calyx, pubescent, 2-seeded,
apex shortly beakled.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish brown.

Weed ID Manual 107

 Crotalaria prostrata Rottl. Ex. Willd.

Common Name : Rattlepod

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A prostrate annual herb.

Stem: Branches slender, densely spreading

pubescent to white appressed pilose.

Leaves: Simple; petiole very short; leaf blade elliptic to

ovate-oblong, 1-3 0.5-1 cm, both surfaces with
trichomes, base oblique, apex obtuse.

Flowers: Racemes terminal or leaf-opposed, 2-8

flowered; flowers yellow.

Fruits: Pod cylindric, 1 cm long, 10-15-seeded.

108 Weed ID Manual

 Crotalaria sagittalis L.

Common Name : Arrowhead rattlebox

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An annual herb, 15-30 cm high.

Stem: Light green, terete, hairy.

Leaves: Alternate, 2-6 cm long and about one-third as

much across; they are elliptic to oblong, flat,
smooth along their margins. Both the upper
and lower sides are hairy. The upper surface is
medium green, while the lower surface is gray-
green. Each leaf has a single central vein that is
prominent. The petioles are hairy and short.

Flowers: Racemes of 1-4 flowers are produced

oppositely from some of the leaves. Flowers are
yellow.

Fruits: The seed pods are initially light green, but they
later turn dark brown or black at maturity.
Full-sized seedpods are 2.5-4 cm long and
about 1/3 as much across; each seedpod
contains several seeds.

Weed ID Manual 109

 Crotalaria verrucosa L.

Common Name : Blue rattlesnake

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: Erect sub-shrub.

Stem: Branchlets 4-angled, pubescent.

Leaves: Simple, ovate or broadly rhomboid, entire,

obtuse, acute, pubescent, stipules semi-lunate.

Flowers: Bluish-white, in leaf opposed or terminal

racemes.

Fruits: Pods oblong, cylindric, prominently nerved,

thinly pubescent, exceeding the calyx.

110 Weed ID Manual

 Croton bonplandianum Baill.

Common Name : Three-leaved caper

Family : Euphorbiaceaee

Habit : Herb or subshrub.

Stem : Woody, well branched.

Leaves : Ovate-lanceolate, serrulate, acute, base acute

with sessile glands.

Flowers : Unisexual, yellowish green, in spikes; male

flower pedicellate, in fascicles; female ones
solitary, sessile.

Fruit : Capsule 3-lobed with stellate hairs.

Weed ID Manual 111

 Cyanotis axillaris Roem. & Schult. F.

Common Name : Spreading dayflower

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit : A branched prostrate or sub-erect, fleshy annual

rooting at the nodes.

Stem : Round, pinkish, growing to a length of 1.5 feet or

more.

Leaves : Simple, up to 3 inches long, narrowly oblong,

acute, alternate and sheathing at their base;
sheaths are dilated, clasping the stem, and ciliate
with long hairs on margins and sides.

Flowers : Blue, in axillary cymose clusters, partly hidden by

the leaf sheaths.

Fruit : Loculicidal capsule, beaked at the top.

Seeds: Grayish, truncate at base with small conical point

at the top and pitted.

112 Weed ID Manual

 Cyanotis cristata (L.) D. Don.

Common Name : Crested cat ears

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit: An annual herb, 10--35 cm high.

Stem: Creeping, often branched.

Leaves: Leaves all cauline; leaf blade oblong, lanceolate,

ovate-lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 2-8 0.8-2
cm, abaxially glabrous or sparsely arachnoid.

Flowers: Cincinni often solitary, terminal or also axillary if

2 together; peduncle absent or to 9 cm; bracts 1-1.5
cm. Flowers blue or purple.

Fruits: Capsule columnar, trigonous, 2.5 mm long,

hirsutus at apex.

Seeds: Gray-brown, pitted.

Weed ID Manual 113

 Cyathula prostrat (L.) Blume.

Common Name : Pasture weed

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit : Perennial herbs or undershrubs.

Stem : Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node, more

or less densely hairy.

Leaves : Opposite; the blades entire.

Flowers : Clustered on a rachis of a long raceme on short

jointed stalks. Perfect flowers in each cluster of 1-
3; sterile flowers reduced to fascicled hooks.

Fruit : Utricle, ellipsoid, thin walled, indehiscent, 1-

seeded.

114 Weed ID Manual

 Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.

Common Name : Bermuda grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Perennial grass.

Stem: The rhizomes are mainly in the top 10 cm of the

soil. They spread horizontally for several meters,
with nodes at approximately 10 cm intervals,
each with 2-3 scale leaves and a single axillary
bud. In dense stands, shoots developing from
buds on rhizomes or runners tend to be erect and
quite short, up to 25 cm high, but develop into
prostrate runners under less dense conditions.

Leaves: Leaf blades are usually dull grey-green, flat, up

to 15 cm long and 3-5 mm wide, tapering to an
abrupt point, finely parallel-ribbed on both
surfaces, without a conspicuous midrib. Ligule is
very short but with a conspicuous fringe of white
hairs.

Flowers: The inflorescence is supported on a culm up to 25

cm high and consists of a single whorl of 3-7
narrow racemes, each 3-8 cm long. Spikelets are
2-2.5 mm long, in two rows, closely appressed to
the rachis.

Weed ID Manual 115

 Cyperus brevifolius Rottb.

Common Name : Mullimbimby couch

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: A slender perennial (living greater than 1

season) sedge, 15-30 cm high.

Stem: Triangular in cross-section and smooth. Very

long, slender, creeping, pink/brown rhizomes
(underground stems) with roots below every
stem.

Leaves: Shiny green, 1-2 mm wide and channeled. The

leaves are considerably shorter than the stems.
The name brevifolius means short-leaved.

Flowers: Inflorescence or spikelet (flowerhead) is a green

and egg-shaped, with around 100 tiny flowers
per head. The flowerheads protrude above the
plant.

Fruits: Tiny nut with both surfaces being convex. Each

nut is pear-shaped to elliptic and yellow-brown
in colour.

116 Weed ID Manual

 Cyperus compressus L.

Common Name : Poorland flatsedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: An erect glabrous, caespitose annual (sometimes

biannual), 5-75 cm high. Its roots are tufted, fine and
numerous.
Stem: Erect, tufted, slender or rigidulous, glabrous,
compressed, trigonous and 0.5-2.0 mm thick. The
base is covered with red-purple, usually entire and
non-fibrous, loose, open leaf sheaths.
Leaves: The leaves are as long as or shorter than the stem.
They are subcoriaceous, flat, 1.5-4.0 mm, broad,
greyish-green, narrowly linear and taper gradually to
a fine acuminate apex.
Flowers: The inflorescence has umbellate spikes, some of the
rays (usually 3-4) are well developed and up to 8 cm
long. The spikelets are strongly compressed laterally
and there are 4-7 in each ultimate condensed
umbellate spike. These are 1.5-3.5 cm long, 3-5 mm
wide and grey-green, streaked with crimson.
Fruits: Nutlets are shortly stipitate, obovioid, broadly
triquetrous, 1.5-1.7 mm long with three prominent
angles and three concave sides. They are dark brown
or blackish-brown, apiculate and glossy.

Weed ID Manual 117

 Cyperus difformis L.

Common Name : Variable flatsedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: An annual sedge, sometimes behaving as a

perennial, varies in height from 6-80 cm.

Stem: Smooth, triangular, slightly winged and 0.7-3.0

mm thick. The roots are numerous, fibrous and
reddish.

Leaves: Smooth, (or slightly scabrid on the midrib and

margin), flat, linear, 5-25 cm long or often two-
thirds of the plant height, 2-6 mm wide,
sometimes reduced to sheaths. Sheaths are
tubular, united, green to reddish-brown and
without leaf blades at the base.

Flowers: Inflorescence consists of dense, globose,

umbellate heads, simple or compound, 5-15 mm
in diameter, with 10-60 stellately spreading
spikelets.

Fruits: Nutlets, 0.6-0.8 mm long and 0.3-0.4 mm wide,

triangular, obovate-elliptic, yellowish-brown or
pale-brown, minutely papillose.

118 Weed ID Manual

 Cyperus eragrostis Lam.

Common Name : Pale galingale

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: Tufted perennial, with very short rhizome.

Stem: Culms trigonous, smooth, 2590 cm high, 24

mm diameter.

Leaves: Slightly septate-nodulose, as long as culms or

shorter, 48 mm wide.

Flowers: Inflorescence simple to decompound with up to

12 primary branches to 12 cm long; digitate
clusters 1050 mm diameter.

Fruits: Nut triquetrous, obovoid, about half as long as

glume, 11.4 mm long, 0.5 mm diameter, dark
brown to greyish.

Weed ID Manual 119

 Cyperus haspan L.

Common Name : Haspan flatsedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit : Perennial stoloniferous herb.

Stem : Slender, triquetrous, obscurely winged.

Leaves : Linear, flat, light green.

Flowers : Inflorescence compound; spikelets oblong,

clustered in groups.

Fruit : Nutlets broadly ovate, trigonous, cream yellow.

120 Weed ID Manual

 Cyperus iria L.

Common Name : Ricefield flatsedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: An annual sedge, sometimes behaving as a

perennial. 8 to 60 cm high.
Stem: The culms are tufted, triangular, glabrous, green
and 0.6-3.0 mm thick. The roots are numerous,
short and yellowish-red.
Leaves: Linear-lanceolate, usually all shorter than the
culm, 1-8 mm wide, flat, and scabrid on the
margin and major ribs; leaf sheaths are green to
reddish-brown, membraneous and envelope the
culm at the base.
Flowers: Inflorescence is simple or compound, usually
open, 1-20 cm long and 1-20 cm wide, with
groups of spikes which are either sessile or on
0.5-15.0 cm long peduncles (rays). Spikelets are
erect-spreading, crowded, 6-24-flowered, 2-13
mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm wide, golden to yellowish-
green.
Fruits: Nutlet, 1.0-1.5 mm long, 0.6-0.7 mm wide,
obovate, triangular in cross section, dark-brown
to almost black; the surface is almost smooth.

Weed ID Manual 121

 Cyperus kyllingia L.

Common Name : White head spike sedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: Tufted perennial, 5-45 cm tall.

Stem: Stems crowded or remote, solid, rather stiff,

sharply three-angular, smooth, 1-1.5 mm in
diameter.

Leaves: 2-4, well developed, soft to rather stiff, kelled,

linear, margins of the upper part scabrous,
usually shorter than the stems.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, head-like, ovoid-

globose to ellipsoid, 8-12 x 6-10 mm; initially
pure white, later rusty brown.

Fruits: Nut biconvex, compressed, oblong to oblong-

obovate, apiculate, yellow to darkish brown to
glossy black, very finely warted, 1.3-1.5 x 0.5-
0.7 mm.

122 Weed ID Manual

 Cyperus rotundus L.

Common Name : Purple nutsedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: A perennial sedge.

Stem: Hard, fragrant, globose-ovoid tubers, up to 1.2

cm long and 0.3-0.7 cm in diameter; culms
solitary or few together, sparsely tufted, erect,
10-75 cm tall, 3-angled at top.

Leaves: Narrowly linear, shorter or longer than stem,

0.4-0.8 cm wide, dark green above, pale beneath.

Flowers: Inflorescence a simple or compound umbel, rays

2-8, each up to 7.5 cm long, bearing short spikes
of 3-10 spreading, red-brown spikelets.

Fruits: Nuts oblong to ovate-oblong, 3-sided, 1.3-1.5

mm long and 0.5-0.7 mm wide, maturing brown.

Weed ID Manual 123

 Cyperus tenuispica L.

Common Name : Slender spiked sedge

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: Annual, erect, slender, tufted herb.

Stem: Slender, triquetrous, finely ribbed.

Leaves: Flat, linear, acute, scaberulous; sheaths grey.

Flowers: Inflorescence a compound umbel; spikelets

narrowly linear, stellately spreading.

Fruits: Nuts small, subglobose, trigonous, apiculate,

purplish.

124 Weed ID Manual

 Cyperus triceps Rottb.

Common Name : None

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: An annual or perennial, tufted, erect herb.

Stem: Slender, triquetrous, dark green, incrassate at

base.

Leaves: Flat or folded, flaccid, scabrid; sheaths light

yellow.

Flowers: Inflorescence capitate, often 3 (rarely 1-5) lobed

spikes; central one sub-globose, or oblong,
lateral ones globose.

Fruits: Nuts biconvex, oblong, laterally compressed,

apiculate.

Weed ID Manual 125

 Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd
Common Name : Crowfoot grass
Family : Poaceae

Habit: Annual, very variable, grass, 10-44 cm high.

Stem: Erect or creeping culms, rooting from the

profusely branched nodes.

Leaves: Linear, tapering to a fine point, 2-10 cm long

and 0.2-0.4 cm wide, flat, glaucous, glabrous or
hispid; leaf sheaths striate, the lower whitish;
ligules membranous, very short.

Flowers: Inflorescence comprised of 2-6 digitate spikes,

0.5-4 cm long, olive-grey; spikelets 2-5
flowered, spreading at right angles,
pendulous, strongly striate.

Fruits: Grain 0.5-1 mm long, subglobose, reddish, very

rugose.

126 Weed ID Manual

 Dactyloctenium scindicum Boiss.

Common Name : None

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Stoloniferous perennial grass, 7-45 cm high.

Stem: Mat forming, with erect, slender culms from

the swollen base .

Leaves: Leaf-blades flat or folded, 1-11 cm long, 1.5-3

mm wide, hispid with tubercle-based hairs.

Flowers: Inflorescence of 3-5 spikes, each 0.8-2 cm long

in a compact head.

Fruits: Grain 0.7-1 mm long, transversely rugose.

Weed ID Manual 127

 Datura metel L.

Common Name : Thorn apple

Family : Solanaceae

Habit: An erect, soft-stemmed shrub usually less than

1 m tall.

Stem: Branches somewhat zig-zag, almost glabrous,

green or reddish-tinged to almost black.

Leaves: Large, acrid-smelling when crushed,

triangular-ovate in outline, irregularly toothed
or lobed, 7.5-15 cm long and 3.2-7.5 cm wide,
largest leaves usually towards the ends of
shoots, apex acute or acuminate.

Flowers: Erect, solitary in leaf axils, tubular to funnel-

shaped; white to violet or purple on the outside
and white within.

Fruits: A globose capsule, usually covered with stout

tubercles or prickles, borne on a short, thick
drooping peduncle; capsule 4-valved or
irregularly dehiscent near the apex.

Seeds: Yellowish-brown, flat.

128 Weed ID Manual

 Desmodium gangeticum (L.) DC

Common Name : Sal leaved desmodium

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A common undershrub, usually 0.6-1.2 m tall.

Stem: Simple, straight, irregularly angled; branches

densely hairy.

Leaves: Unifoliate; leaflets membranous, broadly

elliptic to ovate or sometimes lanceolate, 9-12.5
cm long and 3.5-6.3 cm wide, base rounded or
acute, apex acute or acuminate, margins
somewhat wavy, usually glabrescent on upper
surface, pale green and clothed with soft
whitish appressed hairs beneath.

Flowers: Flowers violet or white, borne in fascicles of 2-5

flowers in lax, 40-60-floewered, terminal and
axillary racemes, 15-30 cm long.

Fruits: Pod linear to slightly curved, 1.2-2 cm long and

2 mm wide; joints 4-8, reticulate, longer than
broad, indehiscent, sparsely clothed with
minute hooked hairs.

Weed ID Manual 129

 Desmodium laxiflorum DC.

Common Name : Loose flowered desmodium

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An erect herb or undershrub, up to 1.2 m tall.

Stem: With quadrangular, appressed-pubescent

branches.

Leaves: Alternate, trifoliate; leaflets ovate-elliptic, apex

acute to acuminate, silky- pubescent beneath,
membranous, up to 14 cm long and 8 cm wide.

Flowers: Flowers 2-5 per bract, borne on 25-40 cm long

racemes; standard white, other petals blue,
both covered with yellowish-white hairs.

Fruits: Pods linear with straight sutures, 2.5-3.8 cm

long and less than half as wide, joints 6-10, with
hooked hairs.

130 Weed ID Manual

 Desmodium triflorum (L.) DC.

Common Name : Three flowered tickerfoil

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A wiry, spreading, perennial herb, up to 0.5 m

long.

Stem: With a radial growth habit, often rooting at

basal nodes, sparsely pilose.

Leaves: Alternate, trifoliate; leaflets obcordate,

emarginated at apex, cuneate at base, margins
entire, upper surface glabrous, lower with
sparse appressed hairs; terminal leaflet 4-9 mm
long and 3-10 mm wide, lateral leaflets smaller.

Flowers: Inflorescence sessile, leaf-opposed fascicles of

2-4 flowers; purplish or bluish.

Fruits: Pod linear or oblong, 1-1.5 cm long, continuous

along upper suture, indented on lower suture,
with 4-5 reticulate joints, 3-5-seeded.

Weed ID Manual 131

 Desmostachya bipinnata Stapf.

Common Name : Halfa grass.

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A harsh, rhizomatous perennial grass.

Stem: Stout, up to 1.2 m high.

Leaves: Up to 65 cm long, 3.8-10.5 mm wide when

unrolled. Lower leaf-sheaths are leathery,
often densely flabellate towards the base of the
culm.

Flowers: Inflorescence is up to 60 cm long. Spikes are

clustered or spaced, 14 cm long. Spikelets are 3-
17 flowered, narrowly ovate to linear-oblong,
3-10 mm long. Lower glume 0.7-1.5 mm long,
upper glume 1.1-2.0 mm long. Lemmas are
straw-coloured or suffused with purple, 1.8-2.7
mm long.

132 Weed ID Manual

 Dichanthium annulatum (Forsk.) Stapf.

Common Name : Kleberg's bluestem

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Perennial tussock, sometimes stoloniferous.

Stem: Culms geniculately ascending; pronounced

annulus of radiating, 3-5 mm long white hairs
on the nodes.

Leaves: Leaf blade linear, to about 30 cm long and 2-7

mm wide, margins sparsely pubescent and
scaberulous.

Flowers: Inflorescence a sub-digitate panicle,

comprising 2-15 pale green or purplish
racemes, each 3-7 cm long; geniculate, twisted
awn 8-25 mm long, arising from the upper
lemma of the sessile spikelet.

Fruits: Caryopsis oblong to obovate, dorsally

compressed, 2 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 133

 Digera arvensis Forssk.

Common Name : False amaranth

Family : Amaranthaceae

Habit: An annual herb, 30-60 cm high.

Stem: With spreading branches.

Leaves: Variable, 2-7.5 cm long and 1.3-4.5 cm wide,

ovate or elliptic, acute or rounded at the apex,
sometimes with reddish margins, glabrous.

Flowers: Flowers pink, borne in threes in lax, axillary,

pedunculate spikes, 2.5-12.5 cm long.

Fruits: Globose, approximately 0.3 cm in diameter.

Seeds: Yellowish-brown.

134 Weed ID Manual

 Digitaria sanguinalis L.(Scop.)

Common Name : Large crabgrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A prostrate or ascending annual grass.

Stem: Prostrate, spreading, branched and rooting at

nodes.

Leaves: 3-20 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, with hairs on both

the surfaces. Sheaths hairy and closed Leaves
and sheaths may turn dark red or maroon with
age.

Flowers: Seed head composed of 4-6 branches (spikes) at

the top of the stems, each approximately 3-15
cm long.

Fruits: Caryopsis shiny, yellowish-brown, 2-3 mm

long.

Weed ID Manual 135

 Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl.) Panzer.

Common Name : Viper grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An annual or perennial grass, up 50 cm or

more tall.

Stem: Culms usually straggling from a decumbent

base, much branched, rooting at nodes,
infrequently erect, green or purplish green .

Leaves: Linear, 2-2.5 x 0.3-0.5 cm, glabrous or thinly

pilose, apex acuminate.

Flowers: Inflorescence 6-20 cm long, narrowly elliptic-

oblong to pyramidal, open raceme 0.5-4 cm,
stiff, ascending when young, reflexing and
finally decumbent from the axis at maturity,
rachis flattened, narrowly winged.

Fruits: Spikelets narrowly cuneate.

136 Weed ID Manual

 Diplocyclos palmatus (L.) C. Jeffrey

Common Name : Native bryony

Family : Cucurbitaceae

Habit: A tuberous, slender annual vine.

Stem: Glabrous with forked tendrils.

Leaves: Ovate-suborbicular in outline, 7.5-15 cm long,

base cordate, blade membranous, scabrid
above with minute red scales, smooth or
slightly scabrid beneath; lobes lanceolate, acute
to acuminate, margins coarsely, irregularly
serrate or sinuate and distantly denticulate.

Flowers: Small, greenish-yellow, the female flowers

borne in fascicles, the male solitary.

Fruits: Berry rounded, 2-3 cm in diameter, bluish-

green with eight vertical white streaks,
ripening red.
Seeds: Brown, obovate, compressed, 4 mm long and 3
mm wide, encircled by a prominent raised
band.

Weed ID Manual 137

 Dyschoriste depressa Nees.
Common Name : Dwarf snakerherb
Family : Acanthaceae

Habit: Perennial (rarely shrubby) herb with well-

developed rootstock, up to 60 cm long.

Stem: Procumbent or trailing, rooting or not (rarely

erect in pyrophytic forms subglabrous to
densely whitish pubescent.

Leaves: Obovate, apex broadly rounded to retuse with

a small triangular tip, on both sides glabrous to
sparsely pubescent, often only along midrib
and veins with glabrous lamina, margin
distinctly crisped-ciliate.

Flowers: Flowers in condensed axillary cymes with 1-3

flowers; white, pale blue to blue or mauve to
violet.

Fruits: Capsule 8-14 mm long, shorter than calyx

(rarely same length).

Seeds: 2-3 mm long.

138 Weed ID Manual

 Echinochloa colona (L.) Link.
Common Name : Jungle rice
Family : Poaceae

Habit: An annual grass, 1m or taller.

Stem: Culms stout, erect to decumbent, often

branching from the base.

Leaves: Sheath glabrous, ligule absent or occasionally

represented by a rim of very short hairs, leaf
blades glabrous, elongate, 5-15 mm wide, light
green.

Flowers: Panicle erect or nodding, green or purple-

tinged, 10-20 cm long. Racemes numerous, 2-4
cm long, spreading, ascending, sometimes
branched.

Fruits: Caryopsis ovate, obtuse, usually 2.5-3.5 mm

long. Seed white to hyaline with longitudinal
ridges on the convex surface.

Weed ID Manual 139

 Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv.

Common Name : Barnyard grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Robust, tufted annual grass, erect or at the base

decumbent and rooting at the nodes, 20-150 cm
tall.

Stem: Culms cylindrical, glabrous, filled with white

spongy pith.

Leaves: Leaf sheaths glabrous or the margin or the

exposed part of it fimbriate, 9-13 cm long.
Blades merging into the sheath, linear, with a
broad, rounded base and acute top; rough-
margined, glabrous or at the base with a few
long hairs, smooth or the upper surface
minutely bristly.

Flowers: Inflorescence an apical panicle of 5-40 spike-

like racemes, all turned to one side, with
shortly ascending branches, the crowded
spikelets at one side only, initially erect, later
often bent down, 5-21 cm long.

Fruits: Caryopsis ovoid to obovoid, compressed, 1.5-2

mm long.

140 Weed ID Manual

 Echinochloa glabrescens Munro. ex Hook. f.
Common Name : None
Family : Poaceae

Habit: An erect, closely tufted, annual grass, 50-100

cm high.

Stem: Culms erect or slightly decumbent at the base.

Leaves: Sheaths tightly clasping the stem, leaf blades

strap-like, 10-20 cm long, 5-8 cm wide, with a
long, thin apex.

Flowers: Inflorescence a closely branched panicle, 10-20

cm long.

Fruits: Spikelets numerous, with or without awns (1-3

mm long, if present).

Weed ID Manual 141

 Echinops echinatus Roxb.

Common Name : Indian globethistle

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: A rigid, pubescent, annual herb, up to 1 m tall.

Stem: Erect with branches widely spreading from the

base.

Leaves: Alternate, sessile, 7.5-12.5 cm long, oblong,

pinnatifid, covered with cottony wool beneath,
the lobes triangular and oblong, sinuate and
spiny, the spines often 2.5 cm long.

Flowers: Flower heads white or purple, compact,

globose, 2.5-3.8 cm in diameter, clustered at the
ends of the branches.

Fruits: Achenes 4 mm long, densely villous; pappus

short, yellowish, forming a short cylindrical
bush above the achene.

142 Weed ID Manual

 Eclipta alba (L.) Hassk.

Common Name : False daisy

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: A prostrate, ascending or erect, rough-hairy

annual herb, up to 90 cm tall.

Stem: Much-branched, slender, reddish, covered with

short, stiff hairs, rooting at the lower nodes.

Leaves: Opposite, simple, rough, dull green, ovate to

oblong-lanceolate, 2-10 cm long, 1-3 cm wide,
apex acute or blunt, base attenuate, margin entire
or slightly serrate, pubescent, mostly sessile, the
lower leaves sometimes short-petioled.

Flowers: Flower heads up to 1 cm in diameter, a cluster of

sessile white flowers, in upper axils or terminal,
solitary or two heads together. Ray flowers
white.

Fruits: Achenes light-brown to black, laterally-flattened,

wedge-shaped, 2-3 mm long, 0.9 mm wide. Apex
with short, usually white hairs that are easily
broken off but two hornlike projections often
remain, pappus absent. The rest of the achene is
glabrous and covered with many small warts.

Weed ID Manual 143

 Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms.

Common Name : Water hyacinth

Family : Pontederiaceae

Habit: A free-floating or partly rooting perennial

aquatic herb.

Stem: With numerous, long, fibrous roots, short leafy.

Leaves: In rosettes, spoon or paddle-shaped, apex

rounded, 5-20 cm wide; petioles turbinately
swollen and spongy, enabling the plant to float.

Flowers: Mauve, lilac or blue, funnel-shaped, 2.5-3.8 cm

long.

Fruits: Capsule, many-seeded.

144 Weed ID Manual

 Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertner.

Common Name : Goosegrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An annual grass.

Stem: Erect, slender, flattened, radiating outwards

from a central distinctive white center.

Leaves: 2-14 inches long, 3-8 mm wide, without hairs or

only sparsely hairy, and folded along the
midvein. The ligule is 1-2 mm long, fringed,
uneven, and membranous. Sheaths are
flattened, whitish at the base, and sparsely
hairy in the collar region.

Flowers: Seed heads composed of 2-13 spikes each 1.5 to

6 inches long, 3-7 mm wide, in clusters at the
top of stems. Two rows of flattened spikelets
occur along each spike.

Seeds: Light brown to black, 1-2 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 145

 Emilia sonchifolia (L.) DC. Ex Wight.

Common Name : Red tassel flower

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: Annual herb up to 40 cm tall.

Stem: Slender, erect or diffuse .

Leaves: Very variable; the lower petioled, lyrate or

abovate, toothed or entire; the upper (cauline
leaves) more or less emplexicaul and auricled,
usually acute.

Flowers: Pink or purplish, borne in solitary or

corymbose heads up to 1.3 cm long; peduncles
very slender, nodding when young.

Fruits: Achenes 0.3 cm long, narrowly oblong, 5-

ribbed, brown, scabrid on the ribs, attachment
to a white, soft pappus.

146 Weed ID Manual

 Eragrostis unioloides (Retz.) Nees. Ex Steud

Common Name : Chinese lovegrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Erect or decumbent, annual grass.

Stem: Solitary or tufted.

Leaves: Opposite, elliptic or obovate, form an acute or

obtuse base, acuminate or rounded at apex.

Flowers: Inflorescence an oblong panicle, 10 cm long,

spikelets two flowered, ovate-oblong,
extremely compressed, purplish-red when
mature. 4-7 mm long, the florets closely
imbricate.

Fruits: Caryopsis compressed, ellipsoid, about 0.8

mm long.

Weed ID Manual 147

 Eriocaulon sieboldianum Siebold & Zucc. ex Steud.

Common Name : None

Family : Eriocaulaceae

Habit: A small, tufted, annual herb, 10-15 cm tall.

Stem: Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves: 3-6 x 0.1 cm, linear, glabrous.

Flowers: Peduncles many; heads white, globose.

Seeds: Oblong-globose, finely, transversely striate.

148 Weed ID Manual

 Euphorbia dracunculoides Lam.
Common Name : Dragon spurge
Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Annual or short-lived perennial, 10-40 cm tall.

Stem: Slender, sometimes branched basally, 3-7 mm

thick, branches ascending.

Leaves: Linear-oblong, 1-3 cm x 2.5-4 mm, base truncate

or subattenuate below, rounded higher up,
margin entire, apex rounded or obtuse.

Flowers: Cyathium sessile; Male flowers many, not

exserted from involucre. Female flower ovary
exserted from cup, smooth, glabrous.

Fruits: Capsule subglobose, 3.5 3.5 mm, smooth or

obscurely reticulate, glabrous.

Seeds: Ovoid- terete, 2.5 1.5-2 mm, gray or dark

gray, adaxially striate; caruncle present,
stipitate.

Weed ID Manual 149

 Euphorbia geniculata Orteg.

Common Name : Wild poinsettia

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Erect, annual herb, up to 1.2 m tall.

Stem: Fistular, ribbed, branched in the upper part,

glabrous or thinly hairy towards the apex,
greenish or purplish in appearance.

Leaves: Alternate below, opposite above, broadly

ovate, elliptic, obovate, or panduriform, rarely
linear, blades 4-12 cm long, 0.3-7 cm wide,
glabrous or pilose, margins entire to coarsely
serrate, apex acute, short-acuminate, or short-
cuspidate, base rounded to cuneate.

Flowers: Cyathia in dense terminal cymes; involucre 2-

2.5 mm high, glabrous.

Fruits: Capsules subglobose, 3-4 mm long, glabrous.

Seeds: Seeds dark brownish gray to black, sometimes

mottled, truncate-ovoid, angled, 2-2.5 mm
long, coarsely tuberculate, ecarunculate.

150 Weed ID Manual

 Euphorbia hirta L.
Common Name : Asthma herb
Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: An erect or procumbent annual herb, 15-50 cm

high.

Stem: Densely clothed with yellow hairs; branches

often 4-angled.

Leaves: Opposite, 1.3-3.8 cm long and 0.6-1.6 cm wide,

obliquely elliptic, apex acute, base usually
unequal-sided, margins serrulate or dentate,
hairy, dark green above and pale beneath.

Flowers: Numerous, less than 1.3 mm long, crowded in

small, globose, greenish-yellow axillary cymes.

Fruits: Capsules minute, 1.25 mm in diameter,

trigonous, appressed hairy.

Seeds: Angular, 0.8 mm long, light reddish-brown.

Weed ID Manual 151

 Euphorbia hypericifolia auct.

Common Name : Graceful sandmat

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Prostrate or decumbent-ascending, annual

herb, up to 40 cm high.

Stem: Often much branched from the base, often

tinged with copper or reddish purple crispy-
hairy or patent-hairy or glabrous.

Leaves: Petiolate, glabrous and dark green above,

appressed-pubescent on the lower surface.

Flowers: Cymes dense on long peduncles.

Fruits: Depressed-globose.

Seeds: Smooth to transversely ribbed, corrugated, 4-

angled.

152 Weed ID Manual

 Euphorbia indica Lam.

Common Name : None

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Annual herb, up to 60 cm tall.

Stem: Decumbent-ascending, suberect or erect,

sparingly puberulous or pubescent.

Leaves: Elliptic-oblong, 1-3 x 0.5-1.5 cm, obtuse,

obliquely rounded at the base, serrulate
except at the base on the inner margin,
subtriplinerved, green above, paler beneath.

Flowers: Cyathia aggregated together into loose

clusters, terminating short axillary shoots;
cyathial glands purplish, with white or pale
pink orbicular petaloid appendages.

Fruits: Trigonous, 1.5 x 2 mm, smooth, sparingly

pubescent or glabrous.

Seeds: 1 x 0.8 mm, ovoid, roundly-quadrangular,

shallowly rugulose to almost smooth, grey,
ecarunculate.

Weed ID Manual 153

 Euphorbia microphylla Heyne ex Roth.
Common Name : None
Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Annual herb, 10-20 cm tall.

Stem: Many from base, prostrate, 1-2 mm thick, light

red or red.

Leaves: Opposite, scalelike, 3-5 2-3 mm, base extremely

oblique, margin subentire, apex rounded.

Flowers: Cyathia single or paired, axillary, peduncle

absent. Male flowers 3-5, not exserted from
involucre or reaching margin. Female flower
pedicellate, nearly reaching margin of
involucre.

Fruits: Capsule 3-angular, globose, 1.5 1.5 mm,

smooth, glabrous.

Seeds: Ovoid-angulate, light yellow, smooth.

154 Weed ID Manual

 Euphorbia thymifolia L.
Common Name : Gulf sandmart
Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Annual herb, up to 20 cm long, 1-3 mm in

diameter.

Stem: Delicate, usually stoloni-shaped, multiramose,

sparsely pilose.

Leaves: Opposite, elliptic, oblong or obovate, 4 - 8 mm

long, 2-5 mm wide, apex rounded, base
oblique, in-equilateral, rounded or subcordate,
margins serrulate, rarely entire, sparsely pilose
on both surfaces, rarely glabrous.

Flowers: Inflorescences solitary or severally clustered at

leaf axils. Male flowers several, slightly
exceeding involucres. Female flower 1, stipes
of ovaries very shorter.

Fruits: Appressed-pubescent, trivalved cocci.

Seeds: Long, ovoid-tetragonal, 0.7 mm long, 0.5 mm in

diameter, scarlet.

Weed ID Manual 155

 Evolvulus alsinoides L.

Common Name : Slender dwarf morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: A prostrate, annual or perennial herb.

Stem: With spreading, wiry, silky hairy branches

arising from a woody rootstock and many
spreading branches.

Leaves: Alternate, subsessile to short-petioled, variable

in shape: broadly ovate, elliptic or lanceolate,
0.8-2.6 cm long and up to 1 cm wide, acute to
rounded at both ends, hairy on both sides.

Flowers: Blue or white, campanulate to subrotate, 0.5-0.6

cm long and wide, born 1-3 together on axillary
peduncles 0.6-4 cm long.

Fruits: Globose 4-valved, usually 4-seeded, capsule,

0.3-0.4 cm long, glabrous.

Seeds: Pale brown to black, ovoid, 1.5-1.7 mm long.

156 Weed ID Manual

 Evolvulus nummularius (L.) L.
Common Name : Roundleaf bindweed
Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Perennial herb, 20-40 cm high.

Stem: Several, rooting at nodes, prostrate, slender,

villous or scabrous.

Leaves: Nearly circular, 1.3-1.7 x 1.2-1.4 cm, glabrous or

appressed pilose abaxially, base cordate to
rounded, apex rounded or emarginate.

Flowers: 1 or 2 per leaf axil; white.

Fruits: Capsule ovoid, 2-3 mm in diameter.

Seeds: Brown, ovoid-trigonous, minutely tuberculate.

Weed ID Manual 157

 Fimbristylis dichotoma (L.) Vahl

Common Name : Forked fimbry

Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: Annual or short lived perennial, 10-70 cm tall.

Stem: Culms slender to rather stout, compressed.

Leaves: Leaf blade pilose with tubercle based hairs on

both sides.

Flowers: Corymb simple, compound or decompound;

spikelets ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, 3-10 mm
long.

Fruits: Nuts obovate to broadly ovate, 0.7-1.25 mm

long, creamy, each side cancellated with 7-13
rows of transversely oblong cells.

158 Weed ID Manual

 Fimbristylis miliacea (L.) Vahl.
Common Name : Grass-like fimbry
Family : Cyperaceae

Habit: A tufted, erect sedge that can grow as an annual

or perennial.

Stem: Culms slender, 40-60 cm tall, four or five

angled and often somewhat flattened.

Leaves: 1.5-2.5 mm wide, up to 40 cm long, basal leaves

half as long as culm, linear, threadlike and stiff,
two-ranked, with sheaths.

Flowers: Inflorescence a rather lax and diffuse

compound umbel, 6-10 cm long, spikelets
globose or ovate, 2.5-4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm
wide, round or acute at apex, reddish brown.

Fruits: Achenes are obovoid, trigonous, biconvex,

apiculate; 0.6 to 1 mm long, 0.75 mm wide and
pale ivory to brown and are covered with a
network of very fine crosswise lines.

Weed ID Manual 159

 Fumaria parviflora Lam.

Common Name : Fineleaf fumitory

Family : Fumariaceae

Habit: Annual herb, up to 60 cm tall.

Stem: Slender, much branched and succulent.

Leaves: 2-3 pinnatisect, 2-5 cm long, segments linear-

oblanceolate, apiculate.

Flowers: Purplish-red, spurred, in terminal or leaf

opposed, bracteate racemes.

Fruits: Nuts globose, 2-3 mm in diameter, rugose

when dry.

160 Weed ID Manual

 Galium aparine L.

Common Name : Stickywilly

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit: An annual, up to 3 m high.

Stem: Square in cross section.

Leaves: Long and narrow, borne in whorls of between

4-10 at intervals along the stem.

Flowers: Flowers are extremely inconspicuous,

consisting of small clusters of white, four
petalled flowers, produced in the axils of the
leaves.

Fruits: Small, hard, spherical, green at first before

becoming purple.

Weed ID Manual 161

 Glinus lotoides L.

Common Name : Lotus sweetjuice

Family : Molluginaceae

Habit: A prostrate or ascending, annual herb,15-45 cm

long.

Stem: Much branched, stellately hairy, usually with a

long, stout taproot, spreading and forming a
loose mat.

Leaves: Opposite or falsely whorled, broadly obovate

or suborbicular, 1-2.5 cm long and 0.8-1.5 cm
wide, villous on both surfaces, apex apiculate,
narrowed at the base, margins finely crenulate-
denticulate.

Flowers: Pinkisk or greenish, in axillary fascicles, 1-6

together.

Fruits: Capsule ovoid, shorter than sepals, 5-valved.

Seeds: Minute, black, glossy, ovovoid, with raised

tubercular points and a distinict white scale at
the hilum, extended into a long filiform
structure, curving around the seed.

162 Weed ID Manual

 Glinus oppositifolius L.

Common Name : Bitter cumin

Family : Molluginaceae

Habit: Erect or ascending, some times prostrate,

annual herb.

Stem: Slender, numerous, dichotomously branched.

Leaves: 1.3 x 2.2 cm long in whorls of 4-5, unequal,

oblanceolate, or linear lanceolate, or sometimes
spatulate.

Flowers: Small, white, in axillary fascicles of 2 or more

with long filiform pedicels.

Fruits: Capsule ellipsoid, a little shorter than sepals.

Weed ID Manual 163

 Gnaphalium polycephalum L.

Common Name : White balsam

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual herb, 30-60 cm high.

Stem: Erect, branched above.

Leaves: Alternate, 7.5 cm long. 0.75 cm broad, tapering

at base, sessile, margins little wavy, smooth
above.

Flowers: Tubular, white, in obovate heads in a terminal

and close panicled corymb.

164 Weed ID Manual

 Gomphrena decumbens Jacq.

Common Name : Prostrate globe-amaranth

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit: An annual or perennial, prostrate or

decumbent herb.

Stem: Clothed with white, shaggy hairs.

Leaves: Subsessile, 1.5-5 x 0.5-1.5 cm, spathulate or

oblong-lanceolate, acute, entire.

Flowers: White in sessile, terminal, subglobose heads or

spikes, up to 4 cm long, pilose on the back.

Seeds: 1.5 x 1 mm, black, shining.

Weed ID Manual 165

 Grangea maderaspatana (L.) Poir

Common Name : Madras carpet

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: Annual, prostrate or procumbent herb.

Stem: Trailing, glandular, pubescent.

Leaves: 1.3-7 cm, sinuately pinnatifid, coarsely serrate,

dentate, sparsely hairy on both surfaces.

Flowers: Capitula somewhat flattened to conical,

terminal, solitary or 2-3 together, each
capitulum 6-13 mm in diameter.

Fruits: Achene 2 mm long, pappus a short fimbriate

tube.

166 Weed ID Manual

 Heliotropium indicum L.

Common Name : Indian heliotrope

Family : Boraginaceae

Habit: Annual or perennial herb, 30-80 cm tall.

Stem: Erect, slightly woody at the base, unbranched

or branches few.

Leaves: Alternate or sometimes subopposite, distinctly

petiolate, petioles to 5 cm long, blade long-
decurrent on petiole from a subtruncate base,
ovate-deltoid, margin slightly wavy-crisped,
2.5-10 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, acute (blunt).

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal, simple or rarely once-

forked, flowers along one side, sessile, tip
coiled, axis up to 20 cm long; lowest flowers
opening first; flowers pale violet (lilac) with a
yellow throat, but fading to dull white.

Fruits: 3.5 mm long, ovoid, ribbed, separating into 2

nutlets each 2-celled, 3-3.5 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 167

 Heliotropium ovalifolium Forsk.

Common Name : Grey leaf heliotrope

Family : Boraginaceae

Habit: Perennial herb, up to 90 cm tall.

Stem: Much branched with woody base, young

branches silvery pubescent.

Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic to obovate, 5.5 x 2.5

cm, base cuneate, apex retuse, mucronate or
acute.

Flowers: Inflorescence a spike like cyme, silky hairy,

flowers arranged in two ranks.

Fruits: Splitting into 4 nutlets, densely hairy.

168 Weed ID Manual

 Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R. Br.

Common Name : False sarsaparilla

Family : Asclepiadaceae

Habit: A twining or prostrate perennial shrub.

Stem: Slender, cylindrical, thickened at nodes.

Leaves: Simple, opposite or whorled, short-petioled,

variable in shape from broadly ovate to
oblong-elliptical, linear or linear-lanceolate,
obtuse or apiculate, 3-10 cm long and 0.3-3.5 cm
wide, base acute, rounded or truncate, apex
rounded or emarginate and apiculate, leathery,
dark green above.

Flowers: Small, greenish-yellow outside and purplish

inside, crowded in subsessile axillary cymes
shorter than leaves.

Fruits: Follicle glabrous, often purplish, slender,

cylindrical, sometimes curved, 10-12 cm long
and 0.5-0.6 cm wide, divaricate.

Seeds: Black, flattened, ovate-oblong with a silvery

coma.

Weed ID Manual 169

 Heteropogon contortus (L.) Roem. & Schult.

Common Name : Spear grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A densely tufted, gregarious, perennial grass;

30-150 cm long.

Stem: Stems slender, erect or decumbent below with

leafy at the base.

Leaves: Leaf blades flat, linear, rigid, 4-30 cm long and

0.2-0.5 cm wide, apex shortly acuminate,
sparsely ciliate towards the base; basal sheaths
laterally compressed, keeled, glabrous; ligule
short, truncate.

Flowers: Borne in terminal. Solitary, spiked racemes, 3-

7.5 cm long, the awns forming a twisted spire at
the top.

Fruits: Spikelets sessile, 0.5-0.8 cm long including the

callus, closely imbricating, lower ones awnless,
male or neuter, upper ones female, long-
awned, bearded with reddish-brown hairs.

170 Weed ID Manual

 Hibiscus lobatus (J. A. Murray) O. Ktze.

Common Name : Lobed leaf mallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: Annual herb, 0.5-1.3 m tall.

Stem: Young stems pubescent, pilose or tomentellous.

Leaves: Leaf-lamina 2-12 1.5-10 cm, suborbicular to

ovate in outline, varying on the same individual
from not lobed to deeply 3-5 palmatilobed or
incised, usually pubescent on both surfaces with
additional longer simple hairs on the veins and
2-4-pronged hairs mainly on the lower surface,
lobes sometimes secondarily pinnately lobed or
incised, apex acute to subcaudate, margin
bluntly toothed or crenate or irregularly lobed,
base slightly to distinctly cordate.

Flowers: 12 cm in diameter, white to yellowish, in few-

flowered terminal racemes.

Fruits: Capsule 10 7 mm, oblong-ellipsoid, pubescent,

with awns 1.5-2 mm long.

Seeds: 1.5-1.3 mm, irregularly prismatic, minutely

verruculose, otherwise glabrous.

Weed ID Manual 171

 Hibiscus panduriformis Burm.

Common Name : Yellow hibiscus

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: Shrub-like perennial, up to 2.5 m tall.

Stem: With a woody base and stellate hairs.

Leaves: Almost round in outline, shallowly 3-5 lobed,

hairy on both surface.

Flowers: Solitary, axillary, yellow with a dark centre,

turning apricot-orange with age.

Fruits: Capsule sub-spherical, 1.5 mm in diameter.

Seeds: 3 x 2 mm, crescent to kidney-shaped, densely

pubescent.

172 Weed ID Manual

 Hibiscus vitifolius Linn.

Common Name : Tropical rose mallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: A herb and almost a shrub, up to 2.5 m tall.

Stem: Erect, densely velvety-hairy.

Leaves: 2.5-6 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, sub-cordate,

rounded at the base, acute at apex, serrate to
crenate, not lobed or shallowly 3-7 lobed,
broadly ovate to orbicular, densely pubescent
on both the surfaces.

Flowers: Occur singly in leaf axils, yellow with a large

purple centre.

Weed ID Manual 173

 Hydrolea zeylanica (L.) Vahl

Common Name : Ceylon hydrolea

Family : Hydrophyllaceae

Habit: Soft, unarmed, herbaceous perennial, but

flowering the first year from seed, therefore
seemingly annual, 7-100 cm tall or more, often
repent.

Stem: Repeatedly branched, glabrous below the

flowering branches.

Leaves: Glabrous or very thinly puberulent on the

petiole, veiny below, lanceolate to elliptic, 2-12
cm long, 6-12 mm wide, on winged petioles up
to 5 mm long.

Flowers: Flowers in irregularly bracted racemes or

panicles, the inflorescence branches, pedicels,
and calyces stipitate glandular; flowers blue.

Fruits: Capsular, 4-4.5 mm high, septicidally

dehiscent, seated in the persistent calyx.

Seeds: Numerous, less than 0.5 mm long.

174 Weed ID Manual

 Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit.

Common Name : Pignut

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: A rigid, , sweetly aromatic herb, sometimes up

to 2 m tall.

Stem: Erect, much-branched, obtusely quadrangular.

Leaves: Very variable, broadly ovate to suborbicular,

margins crenate-serrulate, tomentose and
dotted with oil globules beneath; lower leaves
12 cm long and 9 cm wide, base subcordate,
upper leaves smaller, base acute.

Flowers: Small, blue, borne 2-4 together in axillary or

terminal heads in racemes.

Fruits: Nutlets blackish-brown, ovoid-oblong,

compressed, 0.3 cm long, pubescent with
mucilaginous hairs.

Weed ID Manual 175

 Imperata cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.

Common Name : Cogon grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A perennial grass.

Stem: Culms are short, erect and arise from rhizomes.

The rhizomes are tough, white, commonly 1 m
long but can be considerably more, extensively
branched and covered with papery scale leaves
at the nodes.

Leaves: Stiff, linear-lanceolate, up to 120 cm long and 4-

18 mm wide, with a prominent white midrib,
scabrid margin and pointed tip. The ligule is an
inconspicuous membrane.

Flowers: Inflorescence is a white, spike-like panicle,

terminal, fluffy, 5-20 cm long and up to 2.5 cm
in diameter. Spikelets are numerous, 3.5-5.0
mm long, each surrounded by a basal ring of
silky hairs 10 mm long.

Fruits: Grain is oblong, pointed, brown and 1-1.5 mm

long.

176 Weed ID Manual

 Indigofera cordifolia Heyne. ex Roth.

Common Name : Heart leaf indigo

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: Prostrate, annual herb, 8-15 cm long.

Stem: Branched, hairy.

Leaves: Simple, 6-16 mm long, 4-13 mm broad, nearly

stalkless, broadly ovate, heart-shaped, obtuse
tipped, ending in a sharp point. Leaves are
velvetty hairy on both sides.

Flowers: Inflorescence is nearly stalkless, 4-8 flowered

head; flowers bright red, pea-shaped.

Fruits: 4-5 mm long, oblong, densely pubescent, 2-

seeded.

Weed ID Manual 177

 Indigofera linifolia (L.f.) Retz.

Common Name : None

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A slender, trailing or procumbent, annual herb,

to 45 cm long.

Stem: Numerous, much-branched, stems and leaves

covered by silvery pubescence.

Leaves: Linear, 3 cm long and 0.4 cm wide.

Flowers: Deep pink to bright red, 5-8 mm long, borne in

subsessile racemes.

Fruits: Pod 1.5-2 mm long, globose, hard, silvery

pubescent, apiculate, 1-seeded.

178 Weed ID Manual

 Indigofera linnaei Ali.

Common Name : Birdsville indigo

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A small trailing, annual or perennial herb.

Stem: Much-branched, grey pubescent, with a woody

rootstock; branches 30-45 cm long.

Leaves: Nearly sessile, imparipinnate, rachis 1.5-2 cm

long; leaflets usually 7-9, alternate, subsessile,
oblong-ovate, 3-12 mm long and 1.5-5 mm
wide, obtuse or emarginated at apex, cuneate
at base, appressedly white pubescent on both
surfaces.

Flowers: Small, borne in sessile or short-peduncled 10-

20-flowered axillary spikes up to 1.5 cm long;
bright red, slightly exserted.

Fruits: Pods 3-4 mm long and 1.5-2 mm in diameter,

oblong, cyclindrical, more or less clothed with
white appressed hairs.

Seeds: Globose.

Weed ID Manual 179

 Indoneesiella echioides (L.) Sreem.

Common Name : False waterwillow

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit: An erect, annual herb, up to 60 cm tall.

Stem: Grooved, quadrangular, clothed with spreading

hairs.

Leaves: 3.2-7.5 cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide, oblong or

sub-elliptic, obtuse, sparsely hairy, ciliate
along margins, base cuneate.

Flowers: Numerous, with a pink or white corolla with

dark purple blotches on the lower lip, densely
pubescent outside, borne along the upper side
of a slender, glandular-hairy rachis, in axillary
racemes.

Fruits: Capsules 1-1.3 cm long and half as broad,

compressed, acute at both ends, hairy.

Seeds: Oblong, up to 2.5 mm long, not compressed,

pitted, glabrous.

180 Weed ID Manual

 Ionidium suffruticosum (L.) Roem. & Sch.

Common Name : Spade flower

Family : Violaceae

Habit: A small perennial herb, 15-30 cm tall.

Stem: With a woody base, numerous diffuse or

ascending branches.

Leaves: Subsessile, linear to oblanceolate, 4-5 cm long

and 0.2-0.8 cm wide, margins entire or serrate.

Flowers: Solitary, axillary, red or purple, pedicels 6-12

mm long, erect slender.

Fruits: Small subglobose capsules, 0.6 cm in diameter.

Seeds: Ovoid, longitudinally striate, yellowish-white,

1.5 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 181

 Ipomoea aquatica Forssk.

Common Name : Water spinach

Family : Covolvulaceae

Habit: A sprawling vine, annual or perennial, creeping

on mud or floating on water; up to 3 m long, to 1
cm in diameter.
Stem: Terete, branched, hollow and succulent when
floating, otherwise solid and firm.
Leaves: Emersed, glabrous, alternate; petioles succulent
when grown in water, 3-20 cm long; blades
greenish-brown, triangular, ovate, lanceolate, or
linear, entire to dentate, 3-15 cm long, 1-12 cm
across, bases truncate, cordate, hastate, or
sagittate, lobes rounded to acute, entire to dentate.
Flowers: Inflorescences axillary cymes, with one to a few
flowers; peduncles 0.5-18 cm long. Flowers
perfect, hypogenous, large and showy, funnel
shaped, glabrous, pink, often with darker eye,
sometimes white or cream.
Fruits: A capsule, glabrous, globose to ovoid, 8-10 mm
long.
Seeds: Brown or black, mostly pubescent, 3-ranked,
rounded on back, about 5 mm long, about 4 mm
wide.

182 Weed ID Manual

 Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet.

Common Name : Cairo morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: An extensive perennial climber.

Stem: Tubercled with tuberous rootstock.

Leaves: Ovate to orbicular in outline, 3-10 cm long and

wide, deeply palmately 5-7-lobed, the lobes
lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, acute or obtuse
and mucronate at the apex, 3-5 cm long.

Flowers: Purple, blue-purple or white with a purple

centre, funnel-shaped, 4.6-6 cm long, borne 1 or
3 together in exillary cymes.

Fruits: Capsular, subglobose, 1-1.2 cm long, glabrous.

Seeds: Subglobose to ovoid, blackish to tan, 0.4-0.6 cm

long, densely short-tomentose, sometimes
with long silky trichomes along the edges.

Weed ID Manual 183

 Ipomoea carnea Jace.

Common Name : Bush morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: A robust, perennial shrub, 1-5 m tall.

Stem: Branched, luster green with milky latex.

Leaves: Ovate-lanceolate, pubescent, particularly

beneath.

Flowers: Flowers in clusters at the ends of branches, pale

to deep pink, darker in the corolla throat.

Fruits: Capsule glabrous, dehiscent, brown.

184 Weed ID Manual

 Ipomoea coccinea L.

Common Name : Red star

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: A vine or shrub, up to several metres long.

Stem: Slender or scandent.

Leaves: Ovate, broadly cordate, 6-12 cm long, apex

acute or acuminate, margins subentire, angled
or broadly 3-5 lobed.

Flowers: Erect, red, borne in long-peduncled, few-

flowered axillary cymes, up to 15 cm long.

Fruits: Capsules subglobose or ovoid, 0.6 cm in

diameter.

Weed ID Manual 185

 Ipomoea hederacea (L.) Jacq.

Common Name : Ivy leaf morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: An annual vine.

Stem: Twining or climbing.

Leaves: Alternate, hairy, petioled, 2-5 inches long and

distinctly 3-lobed or ivy shaped.

Flowers: 1-2 inches long, with petals fused into afunnel;

purple or blue or white in color.

Fruits: Capsule, spherical, 3-locular, brown.

186 Weed ID Manual

 Ipomoea obscura (L.) Ker Gawl.

Common Name : Obscure morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Herabceous, twining annual or perennial, 1-2

m long.

Stem: Thinly angular; axial parts glabrous, spreading

pubescent or almost wooly.

Leaves: Cordate-circular or ovate, ocassionally

reniform, 2-8 x 1.6-8, glabrous or sparsely
pilose, base cordate, margins entire or
minutely undulate, apex attenuate, acute.

Flowers: Inflorescence 1-3 flowered peduncle; flowers

white or pale yellow with darker
mediapetaline band and a purple centre.

Fruits: Capsule conical-ovoid or somewhat globose, 6-

8 mm in diameter, apiculate.

Seeds : Black-brown, 4-5 mm, densely grey-brown

tomentellous.

Weed ID Manual 187

 Iopomoea pes-caprae (L.) R. Br..

Common Name : Goats foot

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: An evergreen perennial vine.

Stem: Flexible, 1.3 cm in diameter, branches freely

and roots at the nodes.

Leaves: Fleshy, leathery, 10 cm long, notched at the

apex, creating two equal lobes.

Flowers: Very showy, pink to lavender purple, funnel

shaped.

Fruits: Round, less than 5 inches, hard, not showy.

188 Weed ID Manual

 Iopomoea pes-tigridis L.

Common Name : Tiger foot morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Annual vine.

Stem: Spreading or climbing, with long, spreading

yellow hairs.

Leaves: Up to 11 cm long and 13 cm wide, sometimes

entire but usually deeply palmately 5-9-lobed,
lobes narrowly oval to abovate, narrowed
above and below, 1.6-7 cm long and 1-2.8 cm
wide, thinly pubescent to strigose on both
surfaces.

Flowers: Inflorescence few-flowered bracteate head on

pubescent peduncle up to 14 cm long; flowers
white, pink or purple, if coloured then with a
darker throat, funnel-shaped, 3.5-5 cm long.

Fruits: Capsular, ovoid, papery, brown, glabrous, 0.8-

0.9 cm long and about 0.5 cm in diameter.

Seeds: Black, 0.4 cm long, usually grey pubescent.

Weed ID Manual 189

 Ipomoea turbinata Lag.

Common Name : Lilac bell

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: A large annual, glabrous vine.

Stem: Muricate.

Leaves: 7-18 cm long and 6-13 cm wide, ovate to

orbicular, glabrous, base cordate, apex acute to
acuminate, margins entire.

Flowers: Inflorescence a few flowered peduncle, 3-6 cm

long; flowers funnel shaped, lavender to
purplish.

Fruits: Capsular, ovoid, apiculate, 1.8-2 cm long and

1.3 to 1.7 cm in diameter.

Seeds: Ovoid, smooth, shiny, black, 1 cm long.

190 Weed ID Manual

 Ischaemum indicum.

Common Name : Indian murainagrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Perennial grass; 6-75 cm tall.

Stem: Erect, geniculate or decumbent and rooting at

the lower nodes, sometimes creeping
extensively to form colonies, the internodes
glabrous, the nodes usually pilose on the
sheath base, sometimes nearly glabrous.

Leaves: 3-11 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, linear to linear-

lanceolate, usually at least sparsely pubescent,
sometimes villous, pseudopetioles not
developed, the base gradually narrowed to
abruptly rounded, the tip acuminate, the
margins scaberulous.

Flowers: Racemes two 1-5 cm long, appressed to

spreading; peduncle glabrous, usually long-
exserted;

Fruits: Caryopsis 1.2-1.3 mm long, 0.6-0.7 mm wide,

fitting into the lower hump of the upper glume.

Weed ID Manual 191

 Ischaemum rugosum Salisb.

Common Name : Wrinkled duck-beak

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A vigorous annual (in strongly desiccating soil)

or short-lived perennial, up to 1.5 m tall.

Stem: Tufted, sometimes with stilt roots, rooting at

the nodes, with erect, slanting or ascending,
often much-branched culms.

Leaves: The leaf blades are acuminate, the lower ones

narrowed gradually to the base; 30 cm long, 1.5
cm wide; the margin is cartilaginous and
scabrid, the base densely hairy. The ligule is
variable, a brownish membrane, 6 mm deep.

Flowers: The inflorescence is terminal, apparently

simple when young, but separating with age
into its two constituent racemes, usually 7-10
cm long; each raceme with the spikelets
arranged in pairs, one sessile, one pedicelled,
on one side of the triangular, hairy rachis.

Fruits: Spikelets are boat shaped; yellowish brown,

shiny; lower glume of the sessile spikelets is
membranous with distinct transverse ridges
(hence rugosum).

192 Weed ID Manual

 Lagascea mollis Cav.

Common Name : Silk leaf

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual herb, 50-100 cm tall.

Stem: Sometimes purplish, with stipitate glandular

hairs on young parts.

Leaves: Opposite, simple, ovate, with toothed margin,

3-5 cm long; silky beneath.

Flowers: Tiny white-cream colored flowers occur in a

composite head 2-3 cm across. The heads are
surrounded by silky leaves.

Fruits: Achenes brown or black, 3 mm long,

setuliferous near apex; pappus a minute
crown, pubescent.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish

brown.

Weed ID Manual 193

 Lantana camara L.

Common Name : Wild sage

Family : Verbenaceae

Habit: A perennial shrub, 2-5 m tall.

Stem: Woody, 4-angled, often bearing recurved prickles.

Leaves: Serrated leaves are ovate to ovate-lanceolate (up to

10 cm long and 7.5 cm wide) and usually light
colored.

Flowers: Yellow and pink, later turning orange then red and
sometimes blue or purple.

Fruits: Black, fleshy drupes, borne in clusters, 3-6 mm in

diameter and contain 1-2 seeds.

194 Weed ID Manual

 Lathyrus aphaca L.

Common Name : Yellow pea

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A suberect annual herb.

Stem: Scrambling or trailing, glabrous .

Leaves: Leaflets modified into long tendrils; stipules

ovate-rounded, 0.5-3 X 1-2 cm, appressed to
stem.

Flowers: Yellow, axillary, solitary, on long peduncles.

Fruits: Pods are glabrous, straight or incurved, 2-3.5

cm long and 0.3-0.8 cm wide, with 6-8 seeds.

Seeds: Ellipsoid to globose, usually flattish with a

glossy, smooth, dark purple-brown to black
surface, sometimes spotted to marbled.

Weed ID Manual 195

 Lathyrus sativus L.

Common Name : Grass pea

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A much-branched, straggling or climbing,

herbaceous annual; 25-60 cm long.
Stem: Quadrangular with winged margins. Stipules
are prominent, narrowly triangular to ovate
with a basal appendage.
Leaves: Pinnate leaves are opposite, consisting of one or
two pairs of linear-lanceolate leaflets, 5-7.5 x 1
cm, and a simple or much-branched tendril.
Leaflets are entire, sessile, cuneate at the base
and acuminate at the top.
Flowers: Axillary, solitary, about 1.5 cm long, and may be
bright blue, reddish purple, red, pink, or white.

Fruits: Pods are oblong, flat, slightly bulging over the

seeds, about 2.5-4.5 cm in length, 0.6-1.0 cm in
width and slightly curved; dorsal part of the pod
is 2-winged, shortly beaked and contains 3-5
small seeds.

Seeds: 4-7 mm in diameter, angled and wedge-shaped;

white, brownish-grey or yellow, although
spotted or mottled forms also exist.

196 Weed ID Manual

 Launaea nudicaulis (Linn.) Hook. f.

Common Name : Bold-leaf launaeae

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: Perennial herb with a taproot and often shoot

bearing lateral roots, up to 40-50 cm high.

Stem: A short woody caudex.

Leaves: One or a few basal leaf rosettes, each usually

with several procumbent to ascending-erect,
divaricately branched, occasionally straggling
flowering stems; Caudical leaves 2-12 x 0.5-3.5
cm, rather variable, narrowly spathulate in
outline, sinuate-dentate to irregularly
pinnatifid to mostly runcinate, with acute apex
and acute segments, margin sinuate-dentate
and denticulate.

Flowers: Inflorescence of a flowering stem ending in a

single capitulum and with a variable number
of flowering branches; peduncles 2-15 mm
long, wiry, spreading-erect; flowers usually
yellow.

Fruits: Achenes 2.6-5.5 x 0.5-1.0 mm, heteromorphic,

with 4 main ribs, smooth to somewhat
transversely wrinkled, pale.

Weed ID Manual 197

 Launaea sarmentosa (Willd.) Sch. Bip.

Common Name : Beach Launaea

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual or perennial, rosulate, creeping,

glabrous.

Stem: Stems several, flagelliform, creeping, 20-90 cm,

branched; nodes 4-15 cm apart, with
adventitious roots and secondary leaf rosettes.

Leaves: Rosette leaves spatulate, 3-8 0.6-1 cm,

sinuate-dentate to pinnately lobed, attenuate
towards base, margin weakly to distinctly
denticulate, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded.

Flowers: Capitulum solitary, terminating secondary leaf

rosettes along stems, with usually 14-18 florets;
corolla yellow.

Fruits: Achenes weakly dimorphic, brownish to

blackish, columnar to cylindric, 3-5 mm; outer
achenes with 5 thick soft ribs, smooth, apex
pointed to subtruncate; inner achenes with 4
ribs. Pappus 4-8 mm, caducous with pappus
disk.

198 Weed ID Manual

 Leonitis nepetaefolia (L.) R. Br.

Common Name : Lion's ear

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: A herb or shrub, 1.2-2.6 m tall.

Stem: Stem and branches obtusely 4-angled, deeply

grooved on opposite sides, finely tomentose.

Leaves: Upper leaves ovate-lanceolate, 5.6-8.5 cm long

and 1.5-2.6 cm wide, acute at base; lower leaves
ovate to broadly ovate, 4-20 cm long and 3-15
cm wide, broadly rounded or truncate at base;
all leaves acute to subacute at apex with
crenate-serrate margins.

Flowers: Orange-scarlet, bristly, borne in dense,

globose, axillary whorls, 3.8-6.3 cm in
diameter; floral leaves lanceolate, deflexed;
bracts linear, up to 16 mm long, strongly
spinous-pointed, deflexed, pubescent.

Fruits: Nutlets oblong-ovoid, about 0.4 cm in

diameter, obliquely truncate with ribbed
margins.

Weed ID Manual 199

 Lepidium sativum L.

Common Name : Pepper grass

Family : Brassicaceae

Habit: A small herbaceous annual; 15-45 cm tall.

Stem: Erect, branched, glabrous.

Leaves: Variable, entire or variously lobed or

pinnatisect. Lower leaves long-petioled, twice
pinnatisect; upper leaves sessile, linear, linear-
oblong or pinnatifid.

Flowers: Small, white in long racemes.

Fruits: An ovoid, flattened silique, measuring 4.5-6.5

mm X 3-4 mm, pale green to yellowish, with
prominent apical wings.

Seeds: Sub-ovoid, flattened, measuring 2-3 mm X 1.5

mm, wingless and reddish brown.

200 Weed ID Manual

 Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees.

Common Name : Chinese sprangletop

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An aquatic or semi-aquatic tufted annual or

perennial grass.

Stem: Stout to slender, erect or geniculate culms up to

1.5 m tall, often rooting at the lower nodes.

Leaves: Leaf-sheath loose, subglaucous, smooth, up to

10 cm long; ligule a fringed, hairy membrane,
1-2 mm long; leaf-blade linear, up to 50 cm x 1
cm, long-attenuate, flat or folded, scabrid
above.

Flowers: Inflorescence 10-60 cm long, composed of

numerous slender racemes scattered along an
elongate central axis; racemes flexuous, 2-13
cm long, erect or laxly ascending.

Fruits: Spikelets 3-7 flowered, narrowly elliptical-

oblong, 2-3 mm, subsessile, often purplish,
disarticulating above the glumes and between
the florets.

Seeds: Caryopsis ellipsoid-oblongoid, 6-9 mm long,

brown, smooth or wrinkled.

Weed ID Manual 201

 Leucas aspera (Willd.) Link.

Common Name : Common leucas

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: An annual herb; 15-45 cm tall.

Stem: Erect , usually much diffusely branched from

below, stout, hispid. Branches quadrangular,
hispid.

Leaves: Linear or oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 cm long with blunt

tips and scalloped margins.

Flowers: Whorls are large, terminal and axillary, about

2.5 cm in diameter and crowded with white
bell shaped flowers.

Fruits: Nutlets long-oblong sub-truncate at the apex,

smooth and brown.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish

brown.

202 Weed ID Manual

 Leucas cephalotes (Roth) Spreng.

Common Name : none

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: An annual, erect, scaberulous, stout herb,

about 0.6-0.9 m tall.

Stem: Stem and branches quadrangular.

Leaves: 3.8-7.5 cm long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate,

crenate-serrate, hairy.

Flowers: Sessile, in large, globose, dense, terminal

whorls, 2.5-5 cm across; white.

Fruits: Nutlets, oblong, small, dull grey to pale black.

Weed ID Manual 203

 Leucas martinicensis R. Br.

Common Name : Whitewort

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: An erect annual herb, up to 1m high.

Stem: Usually unbranched, finely hairy.

Leaves: Opposite, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, margins

coarsely serrate-crenate.

Flowers: Inflorescence of several spaced, many-

flowered verticils with long thistle-like calyx
teeth. Flowers small, white.

Fruits: Nutlets dark brown, oblong-ovoid, 1.5 mm

long, shiny.

204 Weed ID Manual

 Leucas zeylanica (L.) R. Br.

Common Name : Ceylon slitwort

Family : Lamiaceae

Habit: An erect, pubescent or hispidly hairy annual

herb up to 50 cm tall.

Stem: Grooved with quadrangular branches.

Leaves: Opposite, 2.5-7.5 cm long and 0.8-1.3 cm wide;

linear or linear-lanceolate, apex obtuse,
margins entire or slightly serrate, often slighly
recurved, hispid on both sides, base tapering.

Flowers: White, sessile or nearly so, born in teminal

whorls, 1.3-2 cm in diameter.

Fruits: Nutelets small, obovoid-oblong, dark brown or

black, shining.

Weed ID Manual 205

 Limnocharis flava (L.) Buchenau.

Common Name : Yellow velvetleaf

Family : Limnocharitaceae

Habit: Perennial aquatic herb.

Stem: A short thick erect rhizome, the scapes erect,

20-40 cm high.

Leaves: Erect or ascending, not floating, often

exceeding the scapes, long-petiolate, the
petiole vaginate; leaf blades variable in shape,
lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, sometimes
broadly ovate, mostly 8-18 cm long, acute to
rounded at the apex, attenuate at the base.

Flowers: Inflorescences umbelliform, 2-12 flowered, the

pedicels 3-4 cm long, somewhat dilated and
trigonous above; flowers yellow, about 1.5 cm
broad.

Fruits: Follicles about 1 cm long.

206 Weed ID Manual

 Lindernia antipoda (L.) Alston.

Common Name : Sparrow false pimpernel

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit: Annual or perennial herbs.

Stem: Erect or decumbent, and then usually rooting

at lower nodes, branched at base, glabrous.

Leaves: Elliptic to oblanceolate or obovate, 1-2.5 cm

long, 0.6-0.8 cm wide, glabrous, margins entire
to remotely serrate, sessile.

Flowers: Solitary in the leaf axils or sometimes

appearing racemose by reduction of upper
leaves; pale violet or violet blue to pale blue or
white.

Fruits: Capsules cylindrical, 5-14 mm long.

Seeds: Oblong to ellipsoid, 0.5 mm long, reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 207

 Lindernia ciliata (Colsm.) Panuell.

Common Name : Fringed false pimpernel

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit: Annual herb, 20 cm tall.

Stem: Erect or diffuse, much branched; branches

decumbent, sometimes rooting from last node.

Leaves: Sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade oblong to

lanceolate-oblong, 0.7-4.5 X 0.3-1.2 cm,
glabrous, base amplexicaul, margin densely
aristate-serrate, apex acute to obtuse.

Flowers: Racemes terminal;. Flowers light purple or

white.

Fruits: Capsule cylindric, as long as persistent calyx,

apex mucronate.

Seeds: Irregularly triangular.

208 Weed ID Manual

 Lindernia crustacea (L.) F. Muell.

Common Name : Malaysian false pimpernel

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit: An erect or prostrate, glabrous annual herb; up

to 30 cm tall.

Stem: Diffusely branched, rooting at the lower nodes.

Leaves: Ovate, 0.5-2 cm long and 0.4-1.5 cm wide, apex

acute or obtuse, base rounded or subcordate,
margins entire to crenate-serrulate.

Flowers: Axillary, solitary, 6 mm long, blue-white; lower

lip with a yellow spot at the base.

Fruits: Capsule ellipsoid, oblong, apiculate with a

persistent style, 3-5 mm long and 2-3 mm wide.

Weed ID Manual 209

 Lindernia procumbens (Krock.) Philcox.

Common Name : Prostrate false pimpernel

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit: An annual herb, 5-20 cm tall.

Stem: Erect, cespitose, basally much branched,

glabrous.

Leaves: Sessile, elliptic to oblong, somewhat rhomboid,

1-2.5 X 0.6-1.2 cm, glabrous, margin entire or
weakly obtusely toothed, apex obtuse to
rounded.

Flowers: Axillary, solitary, pink to purple.

Fruits: Capsule globose to ovoid-globose, as long as or

slightly longer than persistent calyx.

Seeds: Oblong; seed coat reticulate.

210 Weed ID Manual

 Ludwigia adscendens (L.) H. Hara.

Common Name : Creeping water primrose

Family : Onagraceae

Habit: An aquatic or sub-aquatic perennial herb that may be

emergent, may be anchored, with horizontal extensions
over the water surface, or may be free floating.
Stem: Stems up to 1 m; horizontal stems up to 4 m, normally
glabrous, with long, fibrous roots, as well as adventitious,
modified, spindle-shaped, nodal aerophores or air roots,
that grow erect and may extend above the water surface.
Stems are yellow-green or reddish in some areas.
Leaves: Alternate, broadly oblong-elliptic, rounded or obtuse at
apex, up to 10 cm long, 4 cm wide, narrowed at the base to a
distinct petiole which may be red.
Flowers: Borne singly at upper leaf axils; bright yellow to very pale
yellow or white, up to 2 cm long.
Fruits: A capsule thick-walled, woody, 2 to 3 cm long and 3 mm in
diameter, more or less cylindrical, often some-what
curved, surmounted at apex by calyx, glabrous or with soft
long hairs, 5-locular, light brown with 10 conspicuous
darker brown ribs, seeds evident as bumps between the
ribs, irregularly dehiscent, base narrowed.
Seeds: Pale brown, many in orderly rows, some 4-angled and
some prismoid, 1 to 2 mm in size, firmly imbedded in
coherent cubes of woody endocarp which are fused to
capsule wall.

Weed ID Manual 211

 Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) Raven.

Common Name : Primrose willow

Family : Onagraceae

Habit: A semi-shrubby, erect, annual or perennial

herb; 0.3-1.2 m tall.

Stem: Woody below, much branched.

Leaves: Alternate, nearly sessile, pubescent to

glabrescent, variable in size and shape, 0.7-14
cm long and 0.1-4 cm wide, linear to broadly
elliptic, apex acute to attenuate; base narrowly
to broadly cuneate.

Flowers: Yellow, pubescent, solitary, borne in axils of

upper leaves.

Fruits: Capsule membranous, subquadrangular,

cylindrical, 8-ribbed, 2.5-5 cm long.

Seeds: Minute, ovoid, shiny, brown.

212 Weed ID Manual

 Ludwigia parviflora Roxb.

Common Name : Water primerose

Family : Onagraceae

Habit: Stout succulent herb, up to 3 m tall.

Stem: Well branched, sometimes woody at the base,

usually somewhat reddish, glabrous.

Leaves: 213 0535 cm, lanceolate or broadly

elliptical, narrowly cuneate at the base, the
apex subacute.

Flowers: Clustered on short axillary shoots, also bearing

reduced leaves; yellow.

Fruits: Capsule 1020 12 mm, relatively thin-

walled, glabrous, terete, light brown, at first
thin-walled and torulose, but as the endocarp
swells and hardens, becoming smooth;
pedicels 053 mm long.

Seeds: 06075 0405 mm, uniseriate in each locule

of the capsule, diagonal, brown, obovoid; each
seed loosely but completely embedded in an
easily detached piece of soft powdery
endocarp.

Weed ID Manual 213

 Malachra capitata (Linn.) Linn.

Common Name : Brazil Jute

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: An annual or perennial herb, 1-2 m tall.

Stem: Mostly erect, coarse, throughout densely

whitish or yellowish-tomentose with stellate
hairs and usually also moderately to copiously
hispid with simple or stellate hairs up to 2 mm
long.

Leaves: Long-petioled; orbicular to ovate, 2-10 cm long,

palmately sinuate to 3-7 lobed, lobes mostly
obtuse, crenate to serrate, the base obtuse or
truncate.

Flowers: Axillary, pedunculate, bracteate heads; yellow.

Fruits: Mericarps 3-3.5 mm long, muticous, reddish

veined, puberulent.

Seeds: Obovoid-cuneate, about 2.5 mm long, black,

whitish-pubescent about hilum.

214 Weed ID Manual

 Malva parviflora Linn.

Common Name : Little mallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: An erect, sprawling or decumbent herb

growing up to 50 cm high.

Stem: Covered with stiff star-like (stellate) hairs and

can be erect or ascending (at first spreading
horizontally and then becoming erect) and
rather fibrous.

Leaves: Circular and 8-10 cm in diameter. The base of

the leaf is cordate, margins are crenate,
sparsely pubescent. The leaves are palmately
veined with 5-7 short triangular lobes. The
petiole is mostly 1.5-12 cm long.

Flowers: White or pink in color, and twisted in the bud.

Fruits: Schizocarp, 7-8 mm in diameter and separates

into 8-12, one seeded mericarps. The
schizocarp is disc-shaped surrounded by the
calyx and brown when ripe.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish

brown.

Weed ID Manual 215

 Malvastrum coromandelianum (L.) Garcke.

Common Name : Spine seeded falsemallow

Family : Malvaceae

Habit: A decumbent-ascending or erect perennial

herb or undershrub 0.6-0.9 cm high.

Stem: With a woody base; branches covered with

longitudinally arranged, appressed, 4-
branched white hairs.

Leaves: 2-6.5 cm long and 0.8-4 cm wide, ovate to

lanceolate, apex acute to obtuse, base acute or
obtuse to rounded or truncate, margins
irregularly toothed, 5-nerved at the base,
hirsute above, stellately hairy on major veins
below.

Flowers: Solitary or 2-3 together in leaf-axils; peduncles

0-12 mm long; flowers pale yellow to orange-
yellow.

Fruits: Carpels 8-14, curved, 2-2.5 mm long with sharp

dorsal edges, bearing 2 outwardly directed
awns and another at apex, 0.5-1 mm long.

Seeds: 1.5 mm long, reniform.

216 Weed ID Manual

 Marsilea quadrifolia L.

Common Name : European waterclover

Family : Marsileceae

Habit: A small aquatic fern.

Stem: Slender, creeping rhizome.

Leaves: Quadrifoliate with long slender petioles;

leaflets obovate-retuse, glabrous, arranged in a
whorl.

Flowers: Absent.

Fruits: Fructifications (Sporocarps) are dark brown,

hard, bean shaped, with two unequal horns.

Weed ID Manual 217

 Martynia annua L.

Common Name : Devils claw

Family : Pedaliaceae

Habit: A herbaceous, annual, 0.3-2 m high.

Stem: Erect, branched, glandular-hairy.

Leaves: Opposite, broadly ovate to deltoid, 7-23 cm

long and 7-20 cm wide; base cordate, apex
acute, margins repand-dentate; petioles 7-18
cm long.

Flowers: Large, foxglove-shaped, pink and dark purple

botched with yellow inside, borne in 10-20
flowered racemes, 4-10 cm long.

Fruits: Hard, woody, with 2 sharp recurved hooks.

Seeds: Oblong, black, hairy and shining.

218 Weed ID Manual

 Mecardonia procumbens (Mill.) Small.

Common Name : Baby jump-up

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit : Annual herb.

Stem : 4-angled, simple or branching from the base,

decumbent to ascending to prostrate and
creeping, glabrous.

Leaves : Sessile to somewhat amplexicaul, ovate, 5-20

mm long, 3-10 mm wide, base tapering, obtuse
to rounded at the apex, margins crenate,
glabrous.

Flowers : Solitary; yellow.

Fruits : Capsule ovoid, 4-6 mm long, brown, glabrous,

included in the calyx.

Seeds : Ellipsoid, 0.3 mm long, reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 219

 Medicago denticulata Willd.

Common Name : Rough medik

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An annual decumbent herb, 20-60 cm tall.

Stem: Glabrous or pubescent; branches up to 40 cm

long.

Leaves: Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets obovate to

obcordate; terminal leaflets 827 mm long,
720 mm wide, entire or toothed towards apex,
sometimes with darker flecks or a basal darker
patch; stipules deeply incised, glabrous or
hairy on lower surface.

Flowers: Inflorescences 13-flowered; peduncle shorter

than to twice as long as subtending petiole.
Flowers yellow.

Fruits: A pod; spirally coiled two to three turns with

two rows of curved prickles along its sharp
edges. The pod is about 8 mm in diameter,
brown or slight straw colored.

Seeds: 1.5 mm long, 3.0 mm wide, kidney shaped,

yellowish or tan, smooth.

220 Weed ID Manual

 Melilotus alba Medikus.

Common Name : White sweet clover

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An annual or biennial legume.

Stem: Erect, branching, typically single from base,

glabrous or with a few sparse hairs.

Leaves: Alternate, trifoliolate, stipulate. Stipules linear-

attenuate, 4-5 mm long. Leaflets subequal (the
terminal slightly larger), oblong to oblong-
oblanceolate, serrate-dentate, glabrous, up to 3
cm long, 1 cm broad.

Flowers: Small, white, arranged in many-flowered

terminal and axillary racemes.

Fruits: Pod, dark brown to black at maturity, ovoid,

2.5-4 mm long, without hairs, and cross-ribbed.

Seeds: 2-2.5 mm long; 1.5 mm wide; oval, one side

plane, the other side rounded; yellowish or
greenish yellow; smooth.

Weed ID Manual 221

 Melilotus indica (L.) All.

Common Name : Yellow sweet clover

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: Sweet-smelling, erect herb, up to 10-60 cm

high.

Stem: Hairless, spreading or erect.

Leaves: Odd-1-pinnate; leaflets 1-2.5 cm, inverted

lance-shaped to wedge-shaped-obovate,
generally sharply toothed on the broader part.

Flowers: Yellow; appear in slender, compact racemes

that are 1-2 inches in length.

Fruits: Pods papery, small, round, 2-3 mm long,

yellow or grey, reticulately wrinkled and
slightly hairy.

Seeds: 2 mm long; 1.5 mm wide; broadly oval, one side

plane, the other side rounded; yellowish-
green; roughened by minute tubercles

222 Weed ID Manual

 Melochia corchorifolia L.

Common Name : Chacolate weed

Family : Sterculiaceae

Habit: Undershrub, 60 cm tall.

Stem: Slender, branched, tough-barked, more or less

hairy.

Leaves: Variable in shape, ovate-lanceolate, broadest

near the base or narrow and parallel-sided, tip
pointed or blunt, margins toothed, more or less
hairy on both surfaces, up to 6 cm long, leaf
stalks up to 2.5 cm long.

Flowers: In close clusters at the branch ends, mixed with

many hairy bristle-like bracts, petals pink,
yellow at the base.

Fruits: Capsule hairy, longer than the sepals, splitting

into 5 parts.

Seeds: Ovoid, angular.

Weed ID Manual 223

 Merremia aegyptia (Linn.) Urban

Common Name : Hairy woodrose.

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Perennial vine.

Stem: Twining, herbaceous, up to 4 m or more long,

usually reddish hirsute with long, erect to
suberect hairs.

Leaves: Palmately compound with 5 leaflets, which are

elliptic, both surfaces sparsely pubescent to
glabrate, margins entire to dentate, apex and
base acuminate to acute.

Flowers: Flowers in cymes, usually on long peduncles,

pedicels 1-2 cm long; campanulate, 2-3 cm
long.

Fruits: Capsules tan to pale brown, subglobose, 1-2 cm

in diameter, subtended and partially
surrounded by the somewhat enlarged calyx.

Seeds: Tan, glabrous.

224 Weed ID Manual

 Merremia dissecta (Jacq.) Hallier f.

Common Name : White convolvulus creeper

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Perennia vine.

Stem: Hirsute with yellow-brown hairs.

Leaves: Suborbicular in outline, 5-20 cm in diameter,

palmately divided nearly to base, the lobes 5-9,
sinuate to sinuate-dentate.

Flowers: White with a purple center.

Fruits: Depressed-globose, 1-2 cm in diameter,

partially surrounded by the accrescent calyx.

Seeds: Black, subrounded, glabrous.

Weed ID Manual 225

 Merremia emarginata (Burm. f.) Hall. f.

Common Name : Kidney leaf morning glory

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Prostrate, perennial vine.

Stem: Much-branched, glabrous or sparsely

pubescent, often rooting at the nodes.

Leaves: Reniform to broadly ovate, 0.5-3 cm long, base

cordate with a broadly rounded sinus and
rounded basal lobes, obtuse to broadly
rounded or emarginated at apex, margins
coarsely crenate or entire, glabrous or sparsely
appressed pillose.

Flowers: Inflorescences axillary, solitary or in 2-3

flowered cymose groups. Flowers yellow (or
pinkish) with a paler tube, campanulate, 5-9
mm long.

Fruits: Capsular, subglobose, 5-6 mm long,

longitudinally sulcate, glabrous, brownish-
black or black.

Seeds: Grayish-brown, glabrous, dotted 2.5 mm long.

226 Weed ID Manual

 Merremia tuberosa (L.) Rendle

Common Name : Wood rose

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: Long, climbing vine.

Stem: Basally woody, perennial, twining, and glabrous.

Leaves: Simple and the blades are circular in outline, 6-16

cm long and wide, the base is cordate, and
margins are palmately 5-7 lobed almost to the
base. The lobes are 8-20 cm long, 9-20 cm wide,
ovate, 3-9 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, and leaf margins
are entire.

Flowers: Flowers usually occur in clusters and fully bloom

in sunlight and close under cloudy conditions
and in the dark. The corolla is yellow, glabrous,
funnelform, contortiplicate, enclosed by the
sepals in bud.

Fruits: Globose to depressed globose and 3-3.5 cm in

diameter.

Seeds: Black to dark-brown, ovoid, 1.5-2 cm long,

smooth surfaced, and covered with short, erect,
puberulent indumentum.

Weed ID Manual 227

 Mikania micrantha H.B.K.

Common Name : Mile a minute

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: A creeping perennial.

Stem: Much-branched, scrambling, twining, slender-

vine; herbaceous to semi-woody, branched,
ribbed, sparsely pubescent or glabrous.

Leaves: Simple, opposite, glabrous, thin, broadly ovate,

shallowly or coarsely toothed, triangular or
ovate, tip acuminate, blade 4-13 cm long,
2-9 cm wide, 3-7 nerved; petioles tendriliform,
2-9 cm long .

Flowers: Inflorescence a corymbose panicle with

subcymose branches, 3-6 cm long by 3-10 cm
wide; flowers small, white or cream-colored,
actinomorphic, 4.5-6 mm long, in leaf axils or
on terminal shoots.

Fruits: Achene; somewhat flattened, elliptic, 4-ribbed

with short, white hairs along the ribs, with a
tuft of white pappus at the summit, glandular,
1.2-1.8 mm long, dark grey to black.

228 Weed ID Manual

 Mimosa invisa C. Mart.

Common Name : Giant sensitive plant

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A fast growing, abundantly thorny, biennial or

perennial shrub.
Stem: Bunching, often scrambling over other plants,
four-angled, the angles usually with a line of
sharp, hooked prickles. .
Leaves: Alternate, bright green, feathery and fern-like,
each leaf divided into five to seven pairs of
segments. Each segment carries about twenty
pairs of very small leaflets which close up
when disturbed, injured, or at nightfall.
Flowers: Very small pale pink flowers occur as round,
fluffy balls, about 12 mm across, on short stalks
in the leaf joints.
Fruits: Pods are clustered, each about 25 mm long and
6 mm broad when ripe. Clothed with small
prickles, these later break into four or five one-
seeded pieces.
Seeds: 2-3.5 mm long; flattened ovate; yellow-brown;
glossy; there is horseshoe shaped ring on each
face.

Weed ID Manual 229

 Mimosa pudica L.

Common Name : Sensitive plant

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: A low-growing, much-branched, prickly, sprawling

shrub. It grows 15-100 cm tall and is erect or more
generally has a trailing growth habit.
Stem: Woody at the base, stiff, cylindrical, reddish-brown or
purple, pubescent and bear scattered prickles along the
internodes. The prickles are 3-4 mm long, compressed,
slightly curved, hard and very sharp.
Leaves: Dark green, bipinnate and hairy. Leaflets 12-50, each 6-
12 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, oblong-linear and pointed,
glabrous above but with a hairy margin and lower
surface. Leaflets and leaves fold up rapidly when
touched and also close at night.
Flowers: Flowers bright purplish-pink; occur in globular or
ovoid heads about 9 mm in diameter.
Fruits: Fruits are borne in clusters in the leaf axils. Each fruit is
an oblong, flattened, recurved pod about 8-20 mm long
and 2-6 mm wide containing 1-5 seeds. The pod is
pointed at the apex, glabrous, edged with bristles and
breaks into one-seeded segments which fall away from
unbroken marginal sutures when mature.
Seeds: Light-brown, flattened, 2.5-3 mm in diameter and with
a finely granular surface.

230 Weed ID Manual

 Mitracarpus Villosus (Sw.) DC.

Common Name : Tropical girdlepod

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit : An erect or spreading annual herb.

Stem : 20-40 cm long, branched or unbranched,

pubescent with sort, curly hairs and appressed
hairs, also usually villous on the angles.

Leaves : Elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 2-6 cm long, 0.5-

1.5 cm wide, upper surface scabrid to glabrate,
lower surface glabrous except puberulent
along veins and usually scabrid near margins,
apex acute, base cuneate, subsessile.

Flowers : Sessile or nearly so, in dense axillary clusters,

white, 2-3 mm long.

Fruits : Capsules subglobose, 1 mm long.

Seeds : Pale yellowish brown, ellipsoid-rectangular,

compressed, 0.8-0.9 mm long, the dorsal face
resembling a rectangle with a square portion
removed from each corner, ventrally separated
into 4 discrete areas by 4 impressed lines
arising at the hilum.

Weed ID Manual 231

 Mollugo nudicaulis Lam.

Common Name : Nakedstem carpetweed

Family : Molluginaceae

Habit: Annual herb, up to 30 cm tall.

Stem: Weak ascending culms.

Leaves: Basal, 1.5-6.0 cm long, 6-16 mm broad,

spathulate to oblanceolate, glabrous,
attenuate.

Flowers: Inflorescence a dichasium arising from a

rosette of basal leaves, spreading; peduncle
and pedicel wiry, stiff. Flowers yellowish
white.

Fruits: Capsule subovoid or ellipsoid, as long as

persistent tepals.

Seeds: Less than 1 mm, muricate, minutely

strophiolate, black and shiny.

232 Weed ID Manual

 Mollugo pentaphylla L.

Common Name : Five leaved carpetweed

Family : Molluginaceae

Habit: A slender, decumbent to erect, usually annual

herb, up to 30 cm tall.

Stem: Much branched, angular.

Leaves: 1.3-3.7 cm long and 0.3-1.8 cm wide, in whorls

of 2-9, linear lanceolate to obovate, apex
obtuse, acute or apiculate, narrowed at the
base; petioles obscure.

Flowers: White, greenish, orange or pink in lax,

corymbose, terminal cymes; peduncles and
pedicels filiform.

Fruits: Capsule subglobose, about as long as sepals,

with thin walls.

Seeds: Dark reddish-brown, covered with raised

points.

Weed ID Manual 233

 Monochoria vaginalis (Burm f.) Kunth.

Common Name : Heart shape false pickerel weed

Family : Pontederiaceae

Habit: A fleshy, tufted, annual or perennial aquatic herb

with a glabrous, shiny appearance; 10-50 cm tall.
Stem: A short rhizome.
Leaves: Size and shape is highly variable. In young plants
without lamina, the leaves are 2-12.5 cm long and
0.5-10 cm wide. In somewhat older plants, the
leaves are floating, linear or lanceolate and in still
older plants, are ovate-oblong to broadly ovate,
sharply acuminate with a heart-shaped or rounded
base, shiny, deep-green, and with longitudinal
veins. The petioles are soft and hollow.
Flowers: Inflorescence is spicate, 3-6 cm long, basally
opposite the sheath of the floral leaf with a large
bract arising from a thickened bundle on the leaf
stalk, about two-thirds of the way up the stalk from
the base. The flowers are pedicelled, bisexual, lilac
or violet colored.
Fruits: Capsule, 1 cm in size, splits between the partitions
into three valves.
Seeds: Longitudinally ribbed.

234 Weed ID Manual

 Mukia maderaspatana (L.) Roem.

Common Name : Madras pea pumpkin

Family : Cucurbitaceae

Habit: A prostrate or climbing, much-branched,

annual herb.

Stem: Strongly hispid-scabrid with spreading bristly

hairs and simple tendrils.

Leaves: Alternate, broadly triangular in outline, 5-

angled or 3-5 lobed, 3-11 cm long and wide,
apex acute, base deeply cordate, margins
shortly, irregularly dentate, dark green and
scabrid above, paler green and hispid beneath.

Flowers: Small, pale yellow; male flowers fascicled on

very short peduncles, female flowers usually
solitary, sessile.

Fruits: Berry globose-ellipsoid, up to 1.5 cm in

diameter, pale green with longitudinal cream
stripes, ripening scarlet.

Seeds: Up to 4 mm long and 2 mm broad, closely

arranged, compressed, ellipsoid, grey.

Weed ID Manual 235

 Murdannia nudiflora (L.) Brenam.

Common Name : Naked stem dewflower

Family : Commelinaceae

Habit: An annual herb, 8-30 cm high.

Stem: Unbranched to many branched, creeping,

ultimate branches ascending.

Leaves: Spirally arranged; leaf sheaths with long

shaggy hairs. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute.

Flowers: Inflorescence terminal or terminal and axillary;

cyme few-flowered, solitary or fascicled, long-
pedunculate; flowers pinkish purple or violet,
3-6 mm.

Fruits: Capsules globose, 2.5--5 mm.

Seeds: Deeply pitted, 1.3--1.8 mm.

236 Weed ID Manual

 Oldenlandia corymbosa L.

Common Name : Diamond flower

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit: An annual herb.

Stem: Ascending or erect ; 4-angled.

Leaves: Linear-oblong or narrowly elliptic, almost

stalkless; 1-3.5 cm long and 1.5-7 mm wide.
Midrib of the leaf is prominently visible.

Flowers: White or faintly pinkish-purplish, on slender

stalks 4-8 mm long.

Fruits: Capsule is about 2 x 2 mm, flattened at apex,

slightly laterally compressed.

Weed ID Manual 237

 Oldenlandia diffusa (Willd.) Roxb.

Common Name : Snake needle grass

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit: An annual herb, up to 0.3 m high.

Stem: Slender, low lying.

Leaves: 1-3.5cm long, 1.5-3mm wide.

Flowers: White, 2mm across.

Fruits: Capsule globose, 1-1.5 mm across, slightly

laterally compressed.

238 Weed ID Manual

 Oldenlandia herbacea (L.) Roxb.

Common Name : Slender oldenlandia

Family : Rubiaceae

Habit: Annual or perennial herb.

Stem: Much-branched wiry stems, often intertwined.

Leaves: Small, linear-lanceolate.

Flowers: Solitary or in pairs on long stalks, axillary at the

nodes, up to 5 mm in diameter, white or
mauve.

Fruits: Small, round capsules.

Weed ID Manual 239

 Operculina turpethum (L.) Silva Manso.

Common Name : Indian jalap

Family : Convolvulaceae

Habit: An extensive perennial vine.

Stem: Usually angled or narrowly 3-5-winged; fleshy

with milky juice.

Leaves: Variable in shape, orbicular, broadly ovate,

ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, 5-15 cm long,
base cordate to hastate, apex acuminate, acute
or more commonly coarsely dentate to
shallowly lobed, upper surfaces glabrous or
appressed-pilose, lower surfaces pubescent.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, cymosely one or few

flowered. Flowers with peduncles, 0.2-1.8 cm
long, glabrous or pubescent; white or white
with a yellowish base, campanulate to broadly
funnel-shaped.

Fruits: Capsular, depressed-globose, 1.5 cm long,

enclosed in the enlarged, papery sepals.

Seeds: Dull black, glabrous, 6 mm long.

240 Weed ID Manual

 Oplismenus burmannii (Retz.) P.Beauv

Common Name : Wavy leaf basketgrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An annual grass; 10-60 cm tall.

Stem: Culms prostrate; mid-culm nodes glabrous.

Leaves: Leaf-blades lanceolate or ovate, 1-10 cm long, 5-

20 mm wide. Leaf-blade venation with obscure
cross nerves; surface smooth.

Flowers: Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes.

Fruits: The shortly pedicellate spikelets consist of two

awned glumes, a lower floret that is sterile or
staminate and usually has an awned lemma
but no palea, and an upper floret that is
enclosed by the upper lemma and palea.

Weed ID Manual 241

 Oxalis corniculata L.

Common Name : Creeping wood sorrel

Family : Oxalidaceae

Habit: A small annual or perennial, procumbent or

more or less erect herb, 6-25 cm high.

Stem: Pubescent with appressed hairs.

Leaves: Palmately trifoliate; leaflets 1.2-2.5 cm long,

obcordate, base cuneate, margins entire;
petioles 3.5-9 cm long, very slender, pubescent.

Flowers: Yellow, axillary in umbellate clusters on

slender axillary peduncles.

Fruits: Capsules 2 cm long, linear-oblong, 5-angles,

tomentose.

Seeds: Dark brown, broadly ovoid, transversely

striate.

242 Weed ID Manual

 Oxlis martiana Zucc.

Common Name : Lilac oxalis

Family : Oxalidaceae

Habit: A small, delicate, stemless perennial herb, 5-15

cm high.

Stem: Bulbs or bulbous underground stems covered

with brown, 3-ribbed scales.

Leaves: Leaflets 3, slightly hairy, broadly ovate, each

about 1 inch across, with a notch at the tip of the
midrib, on long leafstalks.

Flowers: Red or purplish, in one or several umbels on

branches of different lengths which rise above
the leaves.

Fruits: Capsule, usually falIs without maturing seeds.

Weed ID Manual 243

 Parthenium hysterophorus L.

Common Name : Congress grass

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: A short-lived annual herb with an extensive

root system and an erect shoot; up to 2 m high.

Stem: Erect main stem, upper half of the main stem

becomes highly-branched at flowering; stems
appear to be striped due to longitudinal
grooves or ribs and they become woody with
age.

Leaves: Pale green, deeply lobed and covered with fine

soft hairs.

Flowers: Creamy-white flowers occur at the tips of the

stems. Clusters of male and female florets are
grouped as five-lobed flowers on the terminal
branches of the flower stem and measure 46
mm in diameter.

Fruits: Achene small (12 mm across), flattened,

triangular and dark brownblack with two
thin, white, spoon-shaped appendages.

244 Weed ID Manual

 Paspalidium flavidum (Retz.) A. Camus.

Common Name : Yellow Watercrown Grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A perennial grass, characterized by spikes

separated by 2-4 times their length, and
spikelets (especially in fruit) spherical.

Stem: Culms are tufted, slightly compressed, 1-3 ft

tall from a prostrate base.

Leaves: Leaf sheaths are strongly keeled, smooth.

Leaves are linear-lanceshaped, flat or folded,
5-30 cm long, 0.5-1 cm broad. Ligule is about 0.5
mm.

Flowers: Inflorescence axis is 5-20 cm. Flower racemes

are 6-9, 1.5-2.5 cm long, widely spaced. Rachis
is about 0.5 mm wide, slightly winged,
prolonged into a point.

Fruits: Spikelets are ovate, gibbous, 1.5-2.5 mm, milk-

white or purplish.

Weed ID Manual 245

 Paspalum dilatatum Poir.

Common Name : Dallis grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A tufted perennial (living for longer than 1

growing season) up to about 2 m high.

Stem: Tall, erect, growing from a solid, hairy base or

crown.

Leaves: Lower sheaths of leaves are hairy. The leaf

blade is angled along the midrib, and is long
and narrow, bright green, sparsely long-hairy
around where it meets the stem.

Flowers: Inflorescence usually has 3 to 7 spike-like

racemes but could be up to 11. Each raceme is
usually less than 5 cm long (but can be up to 12
cm long) and usually at almost right-angles
from the stem.

Seeds: Seed heads have paired seeds lined up in 4

rows. Seeds are brown when mature and
fringed with fine hairs and may feel sticky.

246 Weed ID Manual

 Paspalum distichum L.

Common Name : Knot grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An perennial grass, grows up to 60 cm long.

Stem: Round in cross-section and stems range from

erect to prostrate with erect tips.

Leaves: Flat, often keeled at the base, and hairless

except for a few long hairs at the base. Sheaths
are open and usually are covered with long
hairs. Leaves are rolled in the bud.

Flowers: The flower head is "V"-shaped, formed by two

(sometimes three) branches. The main
flowering stem can be up to 15 cm long. The
branches grow from about 16 cm long.

Fruits: Spikelets usually solitary on the pedicels,

occasionally binate near the middle of the
raceme, imbricate, 2.53.5 mm long, widely
elliptic, abruptly acute, pale greenish.

Weed ID Manual 247

 Passiflora foetida L.

Common Name : Wild water lemon

Family : Passifloraceae

Habit: A perennial vine that climbs with tendrils.

Stem: Thin and wiry, covered with minute sticky

yellow hairs. Older stems become woody.

Leaves: Three- to five-lobed and viscid-hairy. When

crushed, these leaves give off a pungent odor
that some people consider unpleasant.

Flowers: White to pale cream coloured, about 56 cm

diameter.

Fruits: Globose, 23 cm diameter, yellowish-orange to

red when ripe.

Seeds: Black seeds embedded in the pulp.

248 Weed ID Manual

 Pedalium murex Linn.

Common Name : Large caltrops

Family : Pedaliaceae

Habit: A shrubby, stiff-stemmed, succulent herb

grows up to 40 cm in height.

Stem: Much branched, spreading, succulent,

glandular.

Leaves: Simple, opposite, ovate or oblong-obovate, 1-

4.5 cm long, irregularly and coarsely crenate-
serrate.

Flowers: Bright yellow, solitary and axillary.

Fruits: 4 angled with horizontal spines from the

angles.

Weed ID Manual 249

 Pergularia daemia (Forssk.) Choiv.

Common Name : Pergularia

Family : Asclepiadaceae

Habit: A perennial twining herb.

Stem: Up to 4 m or more, covered in soft hairs.

Leaves: Thin, broadly ovate, heart-shaped or nearly

circular, hairless above, velvety beneath.

Flowers: Greenish yellow or dull white, and sweet-

scented, borne in lateral cymes which are at
first corymb-like, afterwards raceme-like.

Fruits: A follicle, with soft spines all over and a long

beak.

Seeds: Densely velvety on both sides.

250 Weed ID Manual

 Peristrophe paniculata (Forssk.) Brummit.

Common Name : Panicled peristrophe

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit: An erect to spreading, annual of perennial

herb, up to 1 m tall.

Stem: Sharply 4-6-angled, hairy.

Leaves: Ovate-elliptic to lanceolate, 4-6 x 1.5-4 cm,

densely lineolate, more or less pubescent
especially on nerves beneath, basally rounded
to acute, acute to acuminate at the apex.

Flowers: Pedicellate, pink or purple, in a terminal or

axillary lax panicle of cymes.

Fruits: Capsule ellipsoid, 1-1.2 cm long, basally solid

and hairy, acuminate.

Seeds: Orbicular, 2.5 mm across, minutely papillate.

Weed ID Manual 251

 Phalaris minor Retz.

Common Name : Little seed canary grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: A tufted annual bunchgrass, up to 1.8 metres in

height.

Stem: Erect or decumbent, caespitose.

Leaves: Leaves long, linear, acuminate. Ligule is an

oblong hyaline membrane, about 2-5 mm long,
often truncate and/or fringed; auricles absent,
sheath smooth.

Flowers: Panicle more or less protruding or entirely

protruding from the uppermost swollen leaf
sheath, ovate to oblong, 5-8 cm long, green.
Sikelets green, broadly lanceolate on short
pedicels, shining, 4 -6 mm long, strongly
laterally compressed.

252 Weed ID Manual

 Phaseolus trilobus auct.

Common Name : Jungle mat bean

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An annual or perennial legume.

Stem: Branches prostrate, diffuse, trailing, glabrous

or pubescent. Stipules peltate, sometimes
spurred, ovate, 4 to 15 mm long.

Leaves: Trifoliate. Petiole 3.7 to 7.5 cm long. Leaflets 1.2

to 2.5 cm long, usually as wide, generally three
lobed, lobes simple, various, oblong obtuse or
subacute, glabrous to subglabrous.

Flowers: Inflorescence a few-flowered raceme; flowers

yellow.

Fruits: Pods cylindrical, 2.5 to 5.0 x 3 mm, glabrous to

sparingly pubescent, 6- to 12-seeded.

Seeds: Dark reddish brown ,often greenish brown,

with black patches.

Weed ID Manual 253

 Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene.

Common Name : Texas frogfruit

Family : Verbenaceae

Habit: A creeping annual herb.

Stem: Often rooting at the nodes, with numerous sub-

quadrangular branches.

Leaves: Opposite, subsessile, 2-3.2 cm long and 1-2 cm

wide, spathulate or obovate, base cuneate,
apex rounded, margins sharply serrate near
the apex, appressedly hairy on both sides with
white hairs.

Flowers: Sessile, densely packed in long pedunculate

axillary heads that are at first globose,
becoming elongate and spicate in fruits; white
or pale pink..

Fruits: Globose-oblong, 1.5-2 mm in diameter, dry,

splitting into two 1-seeded glabrous convex
pyrenes.

254 Weed ID Manual

 Phyllanthus madraspatensis L.

Common Name : Madras leaf-flower

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: An erect or spreading subshrub, growing to

only 50 cm tall.

Stem: Well-branched and hairless.

Leaves: Inverted lance-shaped or obovate, 14 cm long,

up to 5 mm wide. Underside is glaucous, tip is
blunt or rounded with a sharp point. Stipules
have white margins.

Flowers: Male flowers arise 2 or 3 together with 1 female.

Female flower petals are obovate with white
margins, 2 mm long and 1.5 mm wide, twice
the size of the male petals.

Fruits: Capsule is about 3 mm in diameter, globose,

dry.

Seeds: 1.3 x 1 x 1 mm, brown with 14 rows of shiny

black tubercles on the back, and 11-12
concentric rings of tubercles on the sides.

Weed ID Manual 255

 Phyllanthus multiflorus Willd.

Common Name : Phyllanthus

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: A small spreading shrub, up to 5 m tall .

Stem: Up to 15 cm in diameter, bark rough, brown to

grey, branchlets slender.

Leaves: Differently shaped; spirally arrange, 1.5 mm

long on the orthotropic shoots; plagiotropic
shoots with normally developed, distichous,
elliptic to obovate leaves, 1-5 cm x 0.5-2.5 cm,
entire, cuneate to rounded at base, obtuse to
emarginate at apex, glabrous and shortly
petiolate.

Flowers: In few-flowered fascicles or solitary in leaf

axils, unisexual, often a single female flower
and some male flowers together, sometimes
arranged on leafless shoots and those then
seemingly long racemes.

Fruits: A depressed-globose berry, up to 7 mm in

diameter, usually blueish-black when ripe
with dark purplish pulp.

Seeds: Trigonous, up to 2 mm long, blackish.

256 Weed ID Manual

 Phyllanthus niruri L.

Common Name : Stonebreaker

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: A small, erect, annual herb that grows up to

3040 cm in height.

Stem: Quite glabrous, stem often branched at the

base, leaf bearing branchlets slender,
spreading. The bark is smooth and light green.

Leaves: Numerous, subsessile, distichous leaves.

Flowers: Small, white to light yellowish. Male flowers in

axillary, females in solitary.

Fruits: Capsules depressed-globose, smooth scarcely -

lobed.

Seeds: Seeds trigonous, rounded.

Weed ID Manual 257

 Phyllanthus urinaria L.

Common Name : Chamber bitter

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: An erect or subscandent annual herb, up to 1m

high.

Stem: Erect and red.

Leaves: Small, green, oblong, feathered, large at the tip

and smaller towards the petiole. When the
plant is picked the feathery leaves fold in,
completely closing themselves.

Flowers: Greenish white, minute and appear at axils of

the leaves.

Fruits: Small green-red fruits, round and smooth, are

born along the underside of the stems.

Seeds: Yellowish brown to dark brown, wedge

shaped, transversely ribbed on the back.

258 Weed ID Manual

 Phyllanthus virgatus Forst.

Common Name : Narrow piss weed

Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit: Prostrate to erect herb or subshrub up to 50 cm

high.

Stem: Many stems from the base; glabrous or

scabrous.

Leaves: Oblong or narrow-elliptic to ovate, 520 mm

long, 27 mm wide, lower surface paler.

Flowers: Solitary, or males few together; peduncle

variable, extending up to 8 mm long under
fruit.

Fruits: Capsule 1.53 mm diameter, glabrous.

Seeds: 0.5 mm long, more or less tuberculate.

Weed ID Manual 259

 Physalis minima L.

Common Name : Sunberry

Family : Solanaceae

Habit: A fairly low-growing annual, usually up to 1-3ft.

Stem: Erect, delicate and pubescent.
Leaves: Petiolate (4.1 cm long), ovate to cordate,
pubescent, delicate, exstipulate, acuminate,
having reticulate-palmate venation and
undulate margins; dorsal surface of the leaves,
dark green and the ventral surface, light green;
9.7 cm long and 8.1 cm broad.
Flowers: Pedicellate having 1.2 cm long pedicel,
hermaphrodite, complete, solitary, small
companulate, 1.2 to 1.4 cm in diameter; yellow,
having five black spots on yellow ground in the
middle of the corolla cup.
Fruits: A berry, enclosed within the enlarged, 10-ribbed,
reticulately veined calyx, which is 4.1 cm long
and 2.5 cm broad; berries, stalked (stalk, 2.2 cm
long), almost round having a pinhead-sized
depression at the end; fully mature fruits
primrose yellow.
Seeds: Globose, flat, yellow.

260 Weed ID Manual

 Physalis peruviana L.

Common Name : Cape goose berry

Family : Solanaceae

Habit: Herbaceous or soft-wooded, perennial plant,

usually reaches 1.6-0.9 m in height but
occasionally may attain 1.8 m.

Stem: Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves: Nearly opposite, velvety, heart-shaped,

pointed, randomly-toothed leaves 6-15 cm
long and 4-10 cm wide.

Flowers: Bell-shaped, nodding flowers, 2 cm wide,

yellow with 5 dark purple-brown spots in the
throat, and cupped by a purplish-green, hairy,
5-pointed calyx.

Fruits: Berry is globose, 1.25-2 cm wide, with smooth,

glossy, orange-yellow skin with in the calyx
cup.

Seeds: Pale brown, discoid, 1.75 to 2 mm long,

minutely shallowly reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 261

 Pluchea lanceolata (DC.) Oliv. & Hiern.

Common Name : Indian camphorweed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: A stout herb growing 0.33-2 m in height.

Stem: Grooved, rough and very hairy.

Leaves: Elliptical, large, 3-6 cm long and 2-3 cm broad,

and have long petioles.

Flowers: Yellow or light pinkish, many in heads, 0.5-1

cm in diameter.

Fruits: Slender achene, 0.4 cm long, bearded with 0.75

cm long pappus hairs.

262 Weed ID Manual

 Plumbago zeylanica L.

Common Name : Ceylon leadwort

Family : Plumbaginaceae

Habit: A herbaceous perennial.

Stem: Climbing, prostrate, or erect, glabrous.

Leaves: Petiolate or sessile and have ovate, lance-

elliptic, or spatulate to oblanceolate blades that
measure 5-9 2.5-4 cm in length.

Flowers: White in showy dense racemes.

Fruits: Capsules are 7.5-8 mm long, like a small

cocklebur with glue on the soft spines and they
will stick to anything.

Seeds: Reddish brown to dark brown.

Weed ID Manual 263

 Polygonum plebeium R. Br.

Common Name : Small knotweed

Family : Polygonaceae

Habit: A prostrate, densely branched, annual herb.

Stem: Branched from base, branches numerous.

Leaves: Lance-like, elliptic, stalkless, 1.0-3.0 x 0.1-0.4

cm, entire. Ochrea are 1-2 mm long,
membranous, ovate, tube-shaped.

Flowers: Inflorescence axillary, 3-4 flowered. Flowers

sunken between ochrea or hardly coming out,
1-2 mm across, nearly stalkless; pinkish red.

Fruits: Nuts 1.0-1.75 mm long, circular to ovate,

shining, black, glabrous.

264 Weed ID Manual

 Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf.

Common Name : Annual rabbitsfoot grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: An annual grass.

Culm: 15-100 cm long, weak, erect to geniculate,

decumbent at base. Herbage glabrous to
scabrous; culms branched to unbranched.

Leaves: Leaf blades flat, linear, 1.5-22 cm or more long,

1.1-10 mm or more wide, scabrous, margins
scabrous, apices acute. Basal leaf sheaths terete,
minutely scabrous to glabrous; sheaths open,
loosely enclosing culm. Ligule membranous to
chartaceous, 1.7-6 mm or more long, smooth,
acute to truncate, irregularly dentate, minutely
hairy. No auricles present.

Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal panicle, very dense and

spike-like, occasionally with short, dense
branches below, bristly with tawny, yellowish
awns; ovoid-cylindric to cylindric, symmetrical.

Fruits: Caryopsis free from lemma and palea, elliptical,

terete, 0.9-1.2 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide,
glabrous, amber colored.

Weed ID Manual 265

 Portulaca oleracea L.

Common Name : Common purslane

Family : Portulacaceae

Habit: An annual glabrous herb.

Stem: Prostrate, succulent; trichomes at nodes.

Leaves: Obovate or spatulate, flattened, 4-28 2-13

mm, apex round to retuse or nearly truncate;
involucrelike leaves 1-4.

Flowers: 3-10 mm diameter; yellow.

Fruits: Capsules ovoid, 4-9 mm diameter.

Seeds: Black or dark brown, orbiculate or elongate,

flattened, 0.6-1.1 mm; surface cells sooth,
granular, or stellate, with rounded tubercles.

266 Weed ID Manual

 Portulaca quadrifida L.

Common Name : Chickenweed

Family : Portulacaceae

Habit: An annual herb.

Stem: Articulated, prostrate, somewhat fleshy,

rooting at nodes; branches filiform.

Leaves: Opposite; petiole absent; leaf blade flat, ovate,

obovate, or ovate-elliptic, 4-8 2-5 mm, slightly
narrowed toward base, apex obtuse or acute.

Flowers: Flowers solitary, surrounded by involucre of 4

or 5 bracts, white pilose; yellow.

Fruits: Capsule 3.5- 4.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm in

diameter, oblong-conical.

Seeds: Black, 1 mm across, reniform, somewhat

papillose.

Weed ID Manual 267

 Pouzolzia zeylanica (L.) Bennett & R. Br.

Common Name : Graceful pouzolzs bush

Family : Urticaceae

Habit: Perennial, erect or ascending, rarely prostrate.

Stem: 12-40 cm tall; rootstock often tuberous;

branches sometimes with short branchlets,
strigillose.

Leaves: Often opposite, sometimes alternate on lower

or upper stems; leaf blade ovate or broadly
ovate, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate; base
cuneate to rounded, rarely subcordate, margin
entire, apex subobtuse, acuminate.

Flowers: Flowers minute, in small axillary androgynous

clusters.

Fruits: Achenes white, light to dark yellow or light

brown, ovoid, 1-1.2 mm.

Seeds: Subcylinderic, truncate at apex, reddish

brown.

268 Weed ID Manual

 Pseudognaphalium luteo-album (L.) Hillard & Burtt.

Common Name : Cottonweed

Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual herb.

Stem: Loosely white-tomentose, not glandular.

Leaves: Narrowly obovate to subspatulate; margins

weakly revolute, faces mostly concolor to
weakly bicolor, abaxial gray-tomentose,
adaxial usually gray-tomentose,

Flowers: Heads in terminal glomerules, 1-2 cm diameter;

silvery gray to yellowish.

Fruits: Cypselae conspicuously dotted with whitish,

papilliform hairs; pappus bristles loosely
coherent basally.

Weed ID Manual 269

 Psoralea corylifolia L.

Common Name : Babchi

Family : Fabaceae

Habit: An annual herb.

Stem: 0.6-1.2 m. High; grooved.

Leaves: Simple, 3.8x2.5-5.0 cm, broadly elliptic, inciso-

dentate, rounded and mucronate at apex,
white hairy, nigro-punctate, petioles hairy and
gland dotted.

Flowers: In dense axillary, solitary, 10-30 flowered

racemes; Corolla bluish purple, standard
orbicular, clawed.

Fruits: Pod, ovoid-oblong, closely pitted, mucronate,

black.

Seeds: The seeds are dark brown, elongated,

glabrous, closely pitted.

270 Weed ID Manual

 Rhynchosia minima (L.) DC.

Common Name : Least snout-Bean

Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Prostrate or twining perennial, herb or climber.

Stem : 0.15-3 m high; smooth or velvety.

Leaves : Trifolitae, with 3 rhombic, ovate, or nearly

circular leaflets. The lateral leaflets are oblique.
Leaflets are 1-6 cm long, 0.8-5 cm wide.

Flowers : Flowers are borne in loose racemes, 2-15 cm

long, in leaf axils. Flowers are brownish
outside, and yellow inside. The standard petal
is often tinged reddish.

Fruits : Pods are oblong-curved, flattened, shortly

beaked and slightly constricted between the
widely spaced seeds, 0.6-3.5 cm long, 0.3-0.5
cm wide,black when ripe .

Seeds : Monocoloured, black or brown, 3 mm long,

with a short hilus.

Weed ID Manual 271

 Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) W.D. Clayton

Common Name : Itchgrass

Family : Poaceae

Habit : An erect annual grass.

Stem : Up to 4 metres tall, erect, profusely tillering,

roots near the base of the plant. Stems and
leaves are covered with stiff, irritating hairs.

Leaves : Leaf blades are 15-45 cm long, 5-20 mm wide

and flat; characterized by pale, green-colour.

Flowers : Inflorescence is a cylindrical raceme that is

3-15 cm long. The floral units consist of a sessile
spikelet, pedicellate spikelet and internode.
The pedicel is fused to the swollen floral
internode. The spikelets are awnless,
3.5 - 6 mm long, and 2.5 - 3 mm wide. The floral
units separate and fall as soon as they mature,
from the top of the raceme downwards.

Fruits : Caryopsis oblong-ovate, gibbous, 3 - 4 mm

long, 2 - 2.2 mm wide.

272 Weed ID Manual

 Ruellia prostrata Poir.

Common Name : Prostrate wild petunia

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : A prostrate perennial herb.

Stem : Straggling, much branched; it is purple at the

nodes; internodes are long and hairy.

Leaves : Ovate or elliptic, accute, hairy, entire, with

narrow base.

Flowers : Nearly sessile, axillary, solitary or few

together. Pale blue to light violet and
occasionally white in color.

Fruits : Capsules club-shaped, 1.5-2 cm long, densely

covered with fine hairs.

Weed ID Manual 273

 Ruellia tuberosa L.

Common Name : Snapdragon root

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : An annual or biennia herb.

Stem : Erect, 50 cm tall, widely branched, with

fusiform tuberous roots.

Leaves : Mostly basal, finely pubescent; blades ovate to

oblong, 4-6 x 1.5-2.5 cm, base cuneate, apex
obtuse, margin undulate.

Flowers : Cymes dichotomous, few-flowered; purple.

Fruits : Capsule subcylindrical, 1.5 cm long,

puberulent.

Seeds : Orbicular; 2-2.5 mm in diameter.

274 Weed ID Manual

 Rumex dentatus L.

Common Name : Toothed dock

Family : Plygonaceae

Habit : An annual or biennial herb.

Stem : Erect, often flexuous in inflorescence,

branched, distal to middle, occasionally almost
from base, 20-80 cm tall.

Leaves : Ocrea deciduous or partially persistent at

maturity; blade oblong, elliptic-lanceolate, or
ovate-elliptic, 3-12 2-5 cm, base normally
truncate or subcordate to weakly cordate,
margins entire, flat to weakly undulate,
occasionally slightly crisped, apex obtuse or
subacute.

Flowers : Inflorescences terminal, occupying distal half

of stem, usually lax and interrupted, broadly
paniculate, branches usually ascending and
straight. Flowers 10-20 in rather dense remote
whorls.

Fruits : Achenes dark reddish brown, 2-2.8 1.4 -1.8

mm.

Weed ID Manual 275

 Rungia pectinata (L.) Nees.

Common Name : Comb rungia

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : Decumbent or procumbent-ascending or

prostrate herb.

Stem : 15-40 cm tall, much branched, often rooting

from the lower nodes.

Leaves : Elliptic-oblong, lanceolate, sparsely hairy on

both the surfaces; apex acute or subacute, base
cuneate.

Flowers : Purple-blue in 1-1.5 cm long, terminal or

axillary, onsided spikes.

Fruits : Capsule, pubescent at the tip.

Seeds : 2-4 orbicular, minutely achinulate, yellow.

276 Weed ID Manual

 Rungia repens Nees.

Common Name : Creeping rungia

Family : Acanthaceae

Habit : An erect or sub-erect annual herb.

Stem : Slender, often rooting at the base, subterete,

glabrous or puberulous.

Leaves : 2.5-5 cm long, elliptic-lanceolate, oblong, sub-

sessile.

Flowers : In erect, terminal spikes; white, blue or pink

with darker spots.

Fruits : Capsule acute with scarious faces and hard

edges.

Seeds : Sub-orbicular, rugose with concentric furrows;

pale brown.

Weed ID Manual 277

 Saccharum spontaneum L.
Common Name : Wild sugarcane
Family : Poaceae

Habit : Strong perennial.

Culm : 1-2 m tall, tufted; solid above, fistular below,

polished, silky below panicles and minutely
silky below upper leaf-insertions.

Leaves : Erect, glaucous, midrib white, margins scabrid,

often villous above base, sheath longer than
internode.

Flowers : Panicle conical-oblong, with 3-15 cm long

fragile racemes, joints and pedicels; branches
ascending, usually reddish or purplish,
primary rachis silky with long, white hairs.

Fruits : Caryopsis 2 mm long, oblong.

278 Weed ID Manual

 Sacciolepis indica (L.)
Common Name : Glenwood grass
Family : Poaceae

Habit: Annual or perennial, more or less weakly

rhizomatous.

Stem: Culms tufted, decumbent, branching from

base, 15-50 cm long, slender, glabrous.

Leaves: Usually near base of culm; sheaths glabrous,

shorter than internodes; ligule membranous,
0.1-0.3 mm long; blades 3-10 cm long, 2-4 mm
wide, glabrous.

Flowers: Inflorescences 1.5-7 cm long, usually less than 5

mm in diameter, often tinged purple, peduncle
slender, 10-23 cm long, often constituting more
than; the height of the plant;

Fruits: Spikelets pedicellate, strongly imbricate and

concealing the rachis; first glume ovate, boat-
shaped, 1.1-1.5 mm long, 5-nerved, second
glume boat-shaped, 2.5-2.8 mm long.

Seeds: Caryopsis brown, ovoid, slightly compressed,

1 mm long.

Weed ID Manual 279

 Sagittaria guyanensis Kunth.
Common Name : Guyanese arrowhead
Family : Alismataceae

Habit : It is a lactiferous herb without stolons.

Stem : 10-80 cm high.

Leaves : The leaves are floating and simple, the margin

entire, broadly arrow-head shaped and oval in
outline, and 3-12 x 2.5-11 cm. The leaf tip is
obtuse-rounded, and the base is deeply cordate
and sagittate with two broad diverging lobes;
the petiole is usually about 15-30 cm long,
septate, with air-ducts; the basal part has a
broad, membranous sheath.

Flowers : The inflorescence is a raceme; the peduncle is

flaccid, 10-30 cm long, with several whorls of
flowers attached to the main axis. Flowers are
mainly unisexual; bisexual flowers are usually
in lower whorls.

Fruits : Fruit is a nodding aggregate on a strongly

thickened pedicel. The fruit aggregate is about
10-15 mm in diameter.

Seeds : The seeds are brown, 1.5 mm long; the exocarp

has a blunt, broad spiny crest.

280 Weed ID Manual

 Salvinia molesta Mitchell.
Common Name : Water fern
Family : Salviniaceae

Habit : A rootless, aquatic fern.

Fronds : Emergent groups of leaves (fronds) grow in

pairs and are approximately 1/2 inches wide
and 1 inch long. A brown, thread-like leaf
hangs underwater; all join at a node along a
horizontal, underwater stem. The upper
surface of the green leaves is covered with rows
of white, coarse hairs, acting as a water
repellent.

Propagation : It grows from fragments that have broken off

or dormant buds that have been detached from
the main plant. Each node has five buds so
potential for great & rapid spread. It also
produces spores but they are genetically
defective and do not produce viable offspring.

Weed ID Manual 281

 Scoparia dulcis L.
Common Name : Licorice weed
Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit : An erect perennial herb.

Stem : Up to 90 cm tall; stem 5-6-angled, glabrous;

divaricately branched, fetid smelling.

Leaves : Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3, oblong-ovate

to oblanceolate, 0.5-3.8 cm long and 0.8-1.5 cm
wide, tapering at base, subacute at apex,
margins entire or coarsely crenate-serrate,
glabrous on both surfaces.

Flowers : Flowers small, borne in small, 2-6-flowered

axillary whorls in slender pedicels, 8-13 mm
long; corolla white, 0.5 cm in diameter.

Fruits : Capsule subglobose, 3-4 mm in diameter.

282 Weed ID Manual

 Sebastiana chamaelea (Linn.) Muell.
Common Name : Snake's tongue
Family : Euphorbiaceae

Habit : A slightly woody herb, annual or perhaps

lasting over one year.

Stem : About 60 cm high.

Leaves : Alternate, thick-papery, linear or linear-

lanceshaped, 2-5.5 cm long, 2 - 10 mm wide, tip
blunt, margins densely toothed, usually with
glands. Midrib is prominent on both surfaces.

Flowers : Flowers appear in 5-12 mm long spikes,

laterally or at the end of branches. Male flowers
are numerous, spirally arranged at upper part
of inflorescence axis, female ones 1 or several
inserted at lower part of inflorescence axis.

Fruits : Capsules are triangular-spherical, 3-4 mm in

diameter.

Weed ID Manual 283

 Setaria glauca (L.) P. Beauv.
Common Name : Yellow foxtail
Family : Poaceae

Habit : An annual grass.

Stem : Stems are erect, often flattened, without hairs

(glabrous), reaching 3 feet in height, and often
with a reddish tint at the base.

Leaves : Leaf blades may reach 12 inches in length and 7

to 12 mm in width, and have long silky hairs at
the leaf bases. Auricles are absent and the ligule
is a fringe of hairs reaching 2 mm in length.

Flowers : The seed head is a cylindrical bristly panicle,

reaching 6 inches in length and 1/3-2/3 inch in
width. Spikelets are approximately 3 mm long,
green, and each spikelet has 1-3 bristles that are
5-10 mm long. The bristles turn yellow at
maturity, giving the plant it's name.

Seeds : More prominently cross-ridged, and yellowish

or straw-coloured.

284 Weed ID Manual

 Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv.
Common Name : Green foxtail
Family : Poaceae

Habit : An annual grass.

Stem : Erect or spreading, 10 - 100 cm tall or
occasionally taller, usually round in cross-
section but occasionally much flattened.
Leaves : Leaves and leaf sheaths of very young plants
often densely hairy but with upward-pointing
hair; upper leaf blades and leaf sheaths mostly
without hair; margins and both surfaces of leaf
blades rough with very fine forward-pointing
barbs; leaf sheath split with overlapping
margins , both margins being fringed with a
band of short hair.
Flowers : Very dense spike; 1 - 15 cm long and 0.6 - 2.0 cm
wide, usually straight and erect or rarely
somewhat curved, the larger ones sometimes
with short branches up to 1 cm long, and
covered with short green to slightly purplish
bristles which give the inflorescence a bottle-
brush appearance.
Seeds : Rounded on one surface but flattened on the
other, finely cross-ridged, and dull yellowish-
green with brownish spots.
Weed ID Manual 285
 Sida acuta Burm. f.
Common Name : Common wireweed
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : A shrubby annual or perennial herb.

Stem : Up to 1.5 m tall, with slender branches covered

with minute, grey, stellate hairs.

Leaves : Simple, alternate, 1.5-7.5 cm long and 0.5-2.5

cm wide, lanceolate to linear, apex acute,
margins serrate, base subcordate or rounded,
minutely stellate-hairy on both surfaces,
pinnately veined.

Flowers : Pale yellow or orange, axillary, solitary or in

clusters of 2-3.

Fruits : 5-6 mm in diameter, mericarps 5-11,2-2.5 mm

long with 2 awns 1-2 mm long, glabrous, dark
brown.

Seeds : Trigonous, smooth and black.

286 Weed ID Manual

 Sida cordata (Burm.f.) Borssum.
Common Name : Heartleaf fanpetals
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : Prostrate or decumbent, ascending herb.

Stem : Upto 50 cm tall, slender, often with woody

base, trailing, densely stellate-pubescent.

Leaves : Simple, alternate, 1.5 cm long and 1-5 cm wide,

orbicular to ovate, base shallowly cordate, apex
acute or acuminate, margins crenate-serrate
with alternate, short teeth, glabrate or thinly
stellate-hairy on both surfaces, palmately 5-7
veined.

Flowers : Axillary, 1.3-1.5 cm across, pale yellow, solitary

on jointed pedicels 1.2-3.8 cm long in the axils
of leaves or in pairs on short branchlets.

Fruits : Mericarps 5, 2-2.5 mm long, glabrous or shortly

hairy at apex, usually awnless.

Seeds : 2 mm long, ovoid, brownish-black, glabrous.

Weed ID Manual 287

 Sida cordifolia L.
Common Name : Heart-leaf sida
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : Erect undershrub.

Stem : Clothed with stellate and spreading hairs.

Leaves : Cordate-ovate or oblong, crenate-serrate.

Flowers : Yellow, axillary, solitary and clustered at ends

of branches.

Fruits : Schizocarp transversely rugulose, margins

ciliate, mericarps awned.

Seeds : Ovoid or trigonous, brown or black.

288 Weed ID Manual

 Sida rhombifolia L.
Common Name : Arrowleaf sida
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect, annual or perennial undershrub .

Stem : Up to 1.5 m tall with string, wiry, flexuose

branches.

Leaves : Simple , alternate, 3.5-10 cm long and 1-5 cm

wide, highly variable in size and shape, usually
rhomboid-lanceolate, apex acute, acuminate or
obtuse, base cuneate or rounded, margins
serrate, glabrate or stellate-hairy above, grey-
pubescent beneath.

Flowers : Yellow or rarely white, 1-2 cm across, solitary

or in 2-5-flowered clusters in leaf axils or on
short branchlets.

Fruits : Mericarps 9-12, 2.5-3.5 mm long, trigonous,

sparsely pubescent, short or long, awns up to 1
mm long.

Seeds : 2 mm in diameter, subreniform, smooth, dark

brown or black.

Weed ID Manual 289

 Sida spinosa L.
Common Name : Prickly fanpetals
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect, annual or perennial undershrub.

Stem : 30 cm to 1 m tall, stellate pubescent .

Leaves : Leaves with filiform, 2-5 mm long stipules;

blade 0.5-4 cm long, 0.3-2.5 cm broad,
lanceolate to ovate, oblong or somewhat
orbicular, rounded at base, acute or obtuse at
apex, serrate, usually cinereous on both
surfaces.

Flowers : Axillary, solitary or 2-5 in fascicles in terminal

branches; white.

Fruits : Depressed, globose, pubescent above;

mericarps 5, membranous, 2-3 mm long,
trigonous, radially striately nerved, apically
with 2, 0.5-0.8 mm long, divergent awns

Seeds : 1.5 mm long, glabrous, brown to black.

290 Weed ID Manual

 Sisymbrium irio L.
Common Name : London rocket
Family : Brassicaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : Sparsely branched, glabrous, softly pubescent.

Leaves : Stalked, basal leaves lyrate-pinnatifid.

Flowers : Minute, in lax racemes, pale yellow.

Fruits : Curved, valves 3 nerved.

Seeds : Light yellow-brown.

Weed ID Manual 291

 Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav.
Common Name : Silverleaf nightshade
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : An erect or subscandent annual herb, up to 1m

high.
Stem : Cylindrical, sparingly branched, with a few
scattered reddish prickles, herbaceous except
at the base. Yellow to brown coloured prickles
usually occur on the stem and also the main
veins of the leaves.
Leaves : Dark green to pale greyish green, petiolate,
lanceolate, obtuse or acute at the tip, rounded
or truncate at the base, with entire or wavy
margin.
Flowers : The inflorescence is a solitary cyme of 15 - 20
flowers, with long peduncules; flowers bright
blue to purple but sometimes white with
yellow anthers.
Fruits : Irregularly dehiscent berry, initially spherical,
green (with white patches) and fleshy, drying
and becoming yellow to orange (10-15 mm in
diameter) at maturity.
Seeds : Smooth, flat, greenish-brown, 2-3 mm in
diameter, closely resembling those of
tomatoes.
292 Weed ID Manual
 Solanum nigrum L.
Common Name : Black nightshade
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : A variable annual herb.

Stem : Up to 1 m tall with an erect, glabrous or

sparsely pubescent stem and divaricate
branching pattern.

Leaves : 2.5-9 cm long and 2-5 cm wide, ovate or ovate-

lanceolate, glabrous, thin, margins subentire to
sinuately toothed, tapering into the petiole,
apex subacute or acuminate.

Flowers : Small, white, borne in drooping, umbellate 3-8

flowered cymes.

Fruits : Berries globose, 5-8 mm in diameter, red,

yellow or purplish-black when ripe.

Seeds : Numerous, disc-shaped, 1.5 mm in diameter,

yellow, minutely pitted.

Weed ID Manual 293

 Solanum sisymbrifolium Lam.
Common Name : Sticky nightshade
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : An annual or perennial, erect, rhizomatous

herb, 1 m tall.
Stem : The stem and branches are viscid, hairy, and
armed with flat, orange-yellow spines up to 15
mm in length.
Leaves : Ovate to lanceolate leaves are borne on
petioles, 1-6 cm long and are pubescent both
above and below with stellate and glandular
hairs. The leaves are pinnately divided into 4-6
coarse lobes and may be up to 40 cm long and
25 cm wide.
Flowers : Inflorescence internodal, unbranched raceme
composed of 1-10 perfect or staminate flowers.
The 5-parted flowers are white, light blue, or
mauve, about 3 cm in diameter, and are
subtended by a hairy calyx.

Fruits : Red, succulent, globular berries are 12 - 20 mm

in diameter.

Seeds : Pale yellow, 2.9 - 3.2 mm long.

294 Weed ID Manual

 Solanum torvum Sw.
Common Name : Turkey berry
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : Armed shrub.

Stem : Usually 2 or 3 m in height and 2 cm in basal

diameter, but may reach 5 m in height and 8 cm
in basal diameter. The spines are short and
slightly curved and vary from thick
throughout the plant including the leaf midrib
to entirely absent.

Leaves : Opposite or one per node, broadly ovate with

the border entire or deeply lobed.

Flowers : White, tubular with 5 pointed lobes, and

grouped in corymbiform cymes.

Fruits : Berries that grow in clusters of tiny green

spheres, 1 cm in diameter, that look like green
peas, become yellow when fully ripe.

Seeds : Numerous, flat, round, brown.

Weed ID Manual 295

 Solanum viarum Dunal.
Common Name : Tropical soda apple
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : Bushy, prickly herbaceous perennial.

Stem : Up to 2 m tall, more commonly 1 m tall; stems

armed with broad-based, straight or
downward-pointing prickles and clothed in a
mixture of stellate and simple glandular or
non-glandular hairs.

Leaves : Alternate, simple, clearly petioled, prickly;

blades oval-triangular, nearly as broad as long,
to 20 cm long and 15 cm wide, angular-lobed;
surfaces dense with fine soft hairs giving
blades a velvety sheen; veins prickly.

Flowers : White, in small terminal clusters.

Fruits : A globose berry, 2- 3 cm wide, green with dark

veining, like a tiny watermelon, when
immature, dull medium yellow when ripe.

Seeds : Flattened, reddish brown.

296 Weed ID Manual

 Solanum xanthocarpum Schrad. & Wendl
Common Name : Yellow berried nightshade
Family : Solanaceae

Habit : Prostrate, diffuse prickly herb.

Stem : Woody at the base, much branched, armed

with straight, compressed, yellow prickles,
glabrous except stellate hairy young plants.

Leaves : 30-80 x 25-50 mm, elliptic-oblong, sinuate to

deeply lobed, dark-green above; lobes
unequal, obtuse or acute, often toothed or
lobulate.

Flowers : Bluish purple.

Fruits : Globose, green with white stripes, turn yellow

when ripe.

Seeds : Circular, smooth.

Weed ID Manual 297

 Sonchus asper (L.) Hill.
Common Name : Spiny sowthistle
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : Slender, simple or sparingly branched,

glabrous.

Leaves : Basal leaves in a rosette. Upper leaves sessile,

slightly rugose, elliptic-oblong, half
amplexicaul, with rounded. Appressed
auricles; spinous or simple dentate.

Flowers : Head solitary, yellow, gland-hairy peduncle,

sub-umbellate corymb.

Fruits : Achene compressed, the faces faintly rugose

betweenthe ribs. Pappus hairs white.

298 Weed ID Manual

 Sonchus oleraceus L.
Common Name : Smooth sowthistle
Family : Asteraceaea

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : Grooved, sub-umbellately branched, glabrous.

Leaves : Thin, sessile, obovate-lanceolate, base half

amplexicaul, dentate.

Flowers : Heads yellow, in irregular umbellate cymes.

Fruits : Achene compressed, narrowly obovoid,

ribbed, distinctly muriculate, light brown.
Pappus copius, white, longer than the achene.

Weed ID Manual 299

 Sopubia delphinifolia (L.) Don..
Common Name : Common sopubia
Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 25-60 cm tall, much branched, branches 4-

grooved, glabrous.

Leaves : Pinnatisect, 2-3 cm long, segments filiform or

linear, passing into simple, floral bracts.

Flowers : Rose colored or purple, in solitary or axillary or

few flowered terminal racemes.

Fruits : Capsule oblong, as long as the calyx.

Seeds : Numerous, truncate, longitudinally striate.

300 Weed ID Manual

 Sorghum halapense (L.) Pers.
Common Name : Johnson grass
Family : Poaceae

Habit: A perennial from rhizomes that may reach 6.5 feet

in height.
Stem: Round to somewhat flattened, usually without
hairs but sometimes hairs may be present along
the margins. Sheaths may be green to maroon,
especially near the base of the plant.
Leaves: Rolled in the shoot, without auricles, 6 to 20
inches long by 10 to 30 mm wide, with a
prominent white midvein. Leaf blades are
usually without hairs (glabrous) on both surfaces,
however some hairs may be present at the base of
the leaf blade. The ligules are 3 to 4 mm long,
membranous, and often toothed at the top.
Flowers: Seed head a large, open panicle, often with a
purplish tint.
Fruits: Spikelets 4.3-5.5 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm wide.
Elliptical in outline with sharply pointed apex;
plano-convex. Mahogany coloured, shading to a
reddish-brown or yellow. Smooth and glossy.
Seeds: Oval, 3 to 5 mm in length, and dark red to black at
maturity.

Weed ID Manual 301

 Spergula arvensis L.
Common Name : Corn spurry
Family : Caryophyllaceae

Habit : A diffuse annual herb.

Stem : Branched from the root, grooved, semiterete.

Leaves : In pseudo whorls, fleshy, linear-subulate,

spreading.

Flowers : Small, white.

Fruits : Capsule globose, five valved.

Seeds : Circular, thick lens shaped in cross section;

margins winged with one small notch. Greyish
black to black, margins usually light brown.

302 Weed ID Manual

 Sphaeranthus indicus L.
Common Name : East Indian globe thistle
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Annual herb, 30 cm tall.

Stem : Much branched, strongly-scented with winged

stem and the wings toothed. The stem and
branches are spreading, glandular and hairy.

Leaves : Leaves alternate, obovate-oblong, narrowed at

the base, dentate and serrate.

Flowers : Flowers occur in purple spherical heads, 8-15

mm, consisting of numerous purple or pink
tiny flowers.

Fruits : Achene, glabrous, stalked.

Weed ID Manual 303

 Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn.
Common Name : Chickenspike
Family : Sphenocleaceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 7 - 150 cm tall, smooth and fleshy, hollow,

much branched and with white, spongy
(aerenchymatous) tissues at base.

Leaves : Simple and spirally arranged, light green;

blades oblong to lance-shaped, narrowed at the
tip, 10 cm long, borne on short stalks.

Flowers : Inflorescence green, cylindrical, 7.5 cm long

dense terminal spike; flowers densely
crowded, white to greenish, sessile.

Fruits : A flat, 4 - 5 mm diameter globular capsule.

Seeds : Yellowish brown, 0.5 mm long.

304 Weed ID Manual

 Spigelia anthelmia L.
Common Name : West Indian pinkroot
Family : Spigeliaceae

Habit : Annual herb.

Stem : 50-70 cm high, unbranched, or with few pairs of

branches arising near the base. Stem erect,
cylindrical, green, glabrous, with a few remote
pairs of small leaves and an apical
pseudowhorl of four larger leaves.

Leaves : Lamina ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate,

3-10 x 1-3 cm, herbaceous, scabrous above,
glabrous beneath, cuneate and often decurrent
at the base, attenuate at the apex. Leaves with
interpetiolar, broadly triangular, blunt,
glabrous stipules.

Flowers : Inflorescence terminal in the axils of the

whorled upper leaves, upto 15 cm long.
Flowers white to red or purplish.

Fruits : Capsule 4-5 x 5-6 mm, tuberculate.

Seeds : Obliquely ellipsoid or ovoid, 1.5-2 mm, dull

brown, tuberculate.

Weed ID Manual 305

 Spilanthes acmella (L.) L.
Common Name : Pellitary
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A perennial herb.

Stem : More robust, succulent.

Leaves : Triangular or triangular-ovate, obtuse,

attenuate below.

Flowers : Reddish-brown.

Fruits : Achenes scabrid.

306 Weed ID Manual

 Spilanthes calva DC.
Common Name : Para cress
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An annual herb.

Stem : Up to 60 cm tall; erect or decumbent at base,

more or less hairy.

Leaves : Opposite, triangular ovate or lanceolate,

margins dentate or almost entire, sparsely
pubescent beneath.

Flowers : Flower heads ovoid, pale yellow or white,

long-peduncled, solitary or in terminal
panicles.

Fruits : Achenes obovate to trigonous with ciliate

edges.

Weed ID Manual 307

 Sporobolus diander (Retz.) P. Beauv.
Common Name : Indian dropseed
Family : Poaceae

Habit : Perennial, tufted herb.

Stem : Nodes glabrous.

Leaves : Leaf blades linear, flat, convolute; sheaths

glabrous.

Flowers : Spikelets racemosely arranged in terminal

contracted panicles.

Fruits : Caryopsis obovoid.

308 Weed ID Manual

 Stachytarpeta indica (L.) Vahl.
Common Name : Aarons rod
Family : Verbenaceae

Habit : An erect, glabrous, dichotomously branched

annual or perennial herb.

Stem : Usually 30-90 cm high; young branches nearly

quadrangular.

Leaves : Oblong-elliptic, 5-10 cm long and 2.5-3.8 cm

wide, apex acute or obtuse, margins coarsely
serrate, base tapering and decurrent into the
obscure petioles.

Flowers : Sessile, borne in long, slender, nearly

continuous glabrous spikes up to 30 cm long,
the rachis hollowed out beneath each flower;.
deep blue or purple, rarely white, tube 1 cm
long, slightly curved, hairy inside.

Fruits : Capsules pear shaped, ribbed, 3-4 mm long,

enclosed in the calyx, breaking into 2 oblong
pyrenes.

Seeds : Seeds black, flattened.

Weed ID Manual 309

 Stellaria media (L.) Vill.
Common Name : Common chickweed
Family : Caryophyllaceae

Habit : Diffuse to ascending, annual, decumbent,

glabrous, branching herb.

Stem : Flaccid, rooting from the lower nodes, line of

hairs on the branches.

Leaves : Ovate-elliptic to oblong, spathulate.

Flowers : White, numerous, axillary.

Fruits : Capsule ovoid, exceeding the calyx, 6 valved.

Seeds : Circular, flattened, surface covered with

conspicuous curved rows of short irregular
projetions; Greyish brown to reddish brown.

310 Weed ID Manual

 Stemodia viscosa Roxb.
Common Name : Sticky blue rod
Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit : Much branched, erect, viscidly pubescent,

aromatic herb.

Stem : Stem and branches angular.

Leaves : Sessile, tapering to the base, upper serrate or

serrulate.

Flowers : Violet.

Fruits : Capsule ovoid, oblong, glabrous, 4-valved,

enclosed in the calyx.

Seeds : Ellipsoid, faintly reticulate.

Weed ID Manual 311

 Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze.
Common Name : Witch weed.
Family : Orobanchaceae

Habit : An annual obligate hemiparasite, 15-20 cm tall.

Stem : Green, square in cross section, 1-2.5 mm in

diameter. Under ground stems are round with
scale like leaves and white, but turn blue when
exposed to air. The roots are succulent, round,
without root hairs, and found attached to the
host root system.

Leaves : Opposite, narrow; each pair born at right angle

to the preceding one.

Flowers : Variously colored, white, purple, pink or red;

born in opposite pairs or alternately in terminal
leafy inflorescence.

Fruits : Loculicidal capsule, black, ellipsoid, 0.4-2 mm,

two valved.

Seeds : Elliptic, ovate, oblong, ocassionally D-shaped,

triangular, rhombic or irregular; dust like, 0.2 -
0.6 mm long, 0.1 - 0.3 mm wide and thick.
Orange to golden brown or light to dark brown
or gray to blackish.

312 Weed ID Manual

 Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn.
Common Name : Cinderella weed
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A small, erect annual herb.

Stem : 25-50 cm tall with grooved stems.

Leaves : Opposite, broadly ovate-elliptic, hairy.

Flowers : Flower heads yellow, heterogamous, sessile,

axillary and between forks of branches.

Fruits : Achenes black, ribbed; pappus of 2-3 bristly

awns.

Weed ID Manual 313

 Tephrosia purpuria (L.) Pers.
Common Name : Wild indigo
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : A polymorphic, much-branched, suberect,

perennial herb.

Stem : Usually 30-60 cm tall; branches spreading,

glabrous or sparsely pilose.

Leaves : Leaves imparipinnate, 5-15 cm long; petiolets

6-12 mm long. leaflets 7-12, narrow, elliptic to
oblanceolate, apex obtuse or retuse,
mucronate, base acute or cuneate, 2-2.8 cm long
and 0.8-1.3 cm wide, glabrous above, silky
pubescent beneath, with numerous closely
parallel veins.

Flowers : Pink, red or purple, 4-9 mm long, borne in

many flowered, leaf-opposed racemes.

Fruits : Pods slightly curved, compressed, glabrescent,

dehiscing by both sutures, 3-5 cm long and
4 mm wide, containing 4-10 seeds.

Seeds : 4 mm long, suborbicular, compressed,

greenish-grey to dull brown, smooth.

314 Weed ID Manual

 Themeda triandra Forssk.

Common Name : Red oat grass

Family : Poaceae

Habit: Tufted perennial, 45-180 cm high.

Stem: Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves: Extremely variable, from hairy to non-hairy

and green to bluish-green in colour. The basal
leaf sheaths are flattened and this tendency
continues through the leaf blades which are
often folded, especially when young. older
leaves have red or brown tinge.

Flowers: Inflorescence is an open panicle with groups of

spikelets situated on long thin subsidiary
branches. Each unit is normally supported by a
leaf-Iike structure, the spathe, which is often
tinged with mauve, purple, brown or reddish-
brown. Each group of spikelets consists of 6
sterile and one fertile seed bearing unit. This
fertile unit produces a long brown to black awn
which is attached to the seed.

Seeds: Large (up to 10 mm) and shiny black.

Weed ID Manual 315

 Trianthema portulacastrum L.
Common Name : Horse purslane
Family : Aizoaceae

Habit : An annual herb.

Stem : A prostrate mat or clump with stems up to a

meter long. It is green to red in color, hairless
except for small lines of hairs near the leaves,
and fleshy.

Leaves : Leaves have small round or oval blades up to

4 cm long borne on short petioles.

Flowers : Solitary flowers occur in leaf axils. The flower

lacks petals but has purple, petal like sepals.

Fruits : Curved, cylindrical capsule emerging from the

stem.

Seeds : Kidney-shaped, spiral, ended by a beak, 2 mm

in diameter.

316 Weed ID Manual

 Tribulus terrestris L.
Common Name : Puncture vine
Family : Zygophyllaceae

Habit : A more or less pubescent annual herb.

Stem : Stem with prostrate or decumbent primary

branches up to 1.5 m long radiating from the
crown of the taproot.

Leaves : Opposite, paripinnate, up to 5.5 cm long, one of

each pair usually smaller than the other;
leaflets 3-6 pairs, 6-12 mm long, oblong to
linear-oblong, with silky hairs on both
surfaces, apex mucronate, base rounded
oblique.

Flowers : Pale-yellow to yellow, 0.7-2 cm in diameter,

leaf-opposed, solitary.

Fruits : A schizocarp, globose, 1-1.5 cm across,

consisting of 5 woody cocci, each with 2 pairs of
hard, sharp, divaricate spines, one pair longer
than the other.

Seeds : Seeds several in each coccus with transverse

partitions between them; minute, oblong.

Weed ID Manual 317

 Trichodesma indicum (L.) R. Br.
Common Name : Indian borage
Family : Boraginaceae

Habit : An erect, spreading, branched, annual herb.

Stem : About 50 centimeters in height, with hairs

springing from tubercles.

Leaves : Stalkless, opposite, lanceolate, 2 to 8

centimeters long, pointed at the tip, and heart-
shaped at the base.

Flowers : The flowers occur singly in the axils of the

leaves. The flower tube is pale blue, with the
limb about 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and the
petals pointed.

Fruits : The fruit is ellipsoid, and is enclosed by the

calyx.

Seeds : The nutlets 4, about 5 mm long, and rough on

the inner surface, smooth and polished on the
back; greyish white.

318 Weed ID Manual

 Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm f.) R. Br.
Common Name : Camel bush
Family : Boraginaceae

Habit : Densely bristly-hairy annual or perennial herb

or shrub .

Stem : 1m high, smooth to hispid; taproot well-

developed. Stem and twigs clothed in white
scabrous hairs.

Leaves : Basal leaves opposite, becoming alternate up

stem; lamina linear-oblong to narrow-ovate,
3.510.5 cm long, 720 mm wide, apex acute,
surfaces hispid.

Flowers : 1520 mm diameter, blue, rarely white.

Fruits : The fruit is ellipsoid, and is enclosed by the

calyx. Calyx lobes ovate or rounded at the base.

Seeds : Nutlets 4; 4-5 mm long, outer surface smooth

and mottled, inner surface wrinkled, grey,
dotted, brown on dorsal surface.

Weed ID Manual 319

 Tridax procumbens L.
Common Name : Coatbuttons
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A hispid, procumbent herb.

Stem : Up to 60 cm tall; base woody, sometimes

rooting at the nodes.

Leaves : Ovate, 2-7 cm long and 1-4 cm wide, apex acute

or acuminate, base cuneate, margins serrate to
coarsely dentate or trilobed.

Flowers : Flowers borne in small, solitary, terminal

heads; peduncles 10-20 cm long; ray florets
strap-shaped, white; disc florets yellow.

Fruits : Achenes black, turbinate, 2-2.5 mm long with

feathery pappus.

320 Weed ID Manual

 Trifolium fragiferum L.
Common Name : Strawberry clover
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An annual herb.

Stem : Creeping stem that roots at stem joints (nodes),

forming large clumps.

Leaves : The leaves are borne on long petioles. Each

blade is made up of usually three serrated oval
leaflets up to 2 to 2.5 cm long.

Flowers : Inflorescence globular and compact, 10-12 mm

in diameter, with pink or purplish red florets,
and when ripe, become reddish and resemble
strawberry fruits.

Fruits : Fruiting heads are round, sparsely hairy, tan to

reddish brown and look similar to hairy,
unripe raspberries because of the clustered
individual tiny fruits that form the head.

Seeds : Heart-shaped and coloured light brown with

dark brown flecks.

Weed ID Manual 321

 Trigonella polycerata auct. non Linn.
Common Name : Wild fenugreek
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Annual or perennial herb.

Stem : Reddish and sparsely puberulous.

Leaves : Pinnately trifoliolate , leaflets toothed.

Flowers : Inflorescence a pedunculate axillary raceme .

Flowers pedicellate, mostly yellow, or less
often purplish.

Fruits : Pod spirally coiled or rarely falcate , sometimes

provided with tubercles or spines at the
margin, mostly indehiscent, 1 to many seeded.

Seeds : Oblong-cylindrical or oblong-rhomboid, 2 mm

long, brownish, finely tuberculate.

322 Weed ID Manual

 Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq.
Common Name : Burbush
Family : Tiliaceae

Habit : A herbaceous perennial.

Stem : Up to 1.5 m tall, often woody at the base;

branches slender, pubescent with simple hairs
when young, becoming glabrous.

Leaves : Variable, simple, alternate; blade ovate to

rhomboid in shape with 3-5 lobes, sometimes
nearly as wide as broad, and 2-10 cm long. Leaf
margins irregularly serrate, leaf surfaces
softly-pubescent with stellate hairs, blade
palmately veined.

Flowers : Yellow, 5-6 mm across, in dense terminal and

leaf opposed cymes.

Fruits : Small, globose or ovoid 4-6 mm in diameter,

with small, smooth, hooked, spines.

Weed ID Manual 323

 Typha angustata Bory & Chaubard.
Common Name : Southern cattail
Family : Typhaceae

Habit : A tall, robust perennial march plant.

Stem : Usually 1.5-3 m high with a creeping, branched

rhizome.

Leaves : Distichous, semicylindrical above the leaf

sheath, spongy up to 3 m long and 2-3.5 cm
wide, often longer than the flowering stalk,
narrower above the sheath.

Flowers : Minute, borne on cylindrical spikes, 0.8-2.2 cm

in diameter, the male and female spikes often
widely separated on the stalk, sometimes on
different plant; male spikes 25-50 cm long,
consisting of deep-yellow anthers; female
spikes 22-38 cm long, pale brown.

Fruits : Fusiform, dehiscent by an apical lid.

324 Weed ID Manual

 Urena lobata L.
Common Name : Caesarweed
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect, variable, stellate-pubescent to stellate-

tomentose herb or undershrub up to 2.4 m tall.

Stem : Single stem emerging from the ground, but

produces several stems or major branches low in
the stem. Nearly smooth bark is tough and
fibrous, brown on the outside and green within.

Leaves : Variable in size and shape, roundish or ovate,

angled or shallowly lobed, 1-10 cm long and
wide, base cordate, palmately 3-9-veined from
base with linear, extra-floral nectarines (glands)
at base of midrib beneath, margins serrate to
crenate, lobes generally acute or acuminate .

Flowers : Bright pink, borne in axillary clusters, sometimes

forming leafless, terminal racemes.

Fruits : Capsule, 1 cm long, depressed-globose,

indehiscent, densely pubescent, covered with
blunt spines, each spine having 2 straight bristles
pointing downwards.

Seeds : Rounded on the back, wedge-shapped on the

inner side, smooth, grey to dull black.

Weed ID Manual 325

 Urena sinuata L.
Common Name : Bur mallow
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : An erect annual undershrub.

Stem : Almost similar to that of Urena lobata.

Leaves : 2.5-8 cm long, orbicular in outline, 3-5 veined

from base, more or less stellate-hairy on both
surfaces, base cordate or truncate, irregularly
lobed below the middle; lobes 3-5 or more,
dilated upwards, with rounded sinuses,
margins serrate, pale beneath.

Flowers : Rose-colored, 2-2.5 cm in diameter.

Fruits : Capsule, 1 cm long, depressed-globose,

indehiscent, densely pubescent, covered with
blunt spines, each spine having 2 straight
bristles pointing downwards.

Seeds : Rounded on the back, wedge-shapped on the

inner side smooth, black.

326 Weed ID Manual

 Verbascum chinense (L.) Santapau Fl.

Common Name : Chinese mullein

Family : Scrophulariaceae

Habit : An annual erect herb.

Stem : Upto 75 cm tall.

Leaves : 6-14 X 2-5 cn, lyrate-pinnatifid, with oblong,

obtuse, crenate-dentate lobes, pubescent.

Flowers : Yellow in lax glandular hairy racemes.

Fruits : 5-7 mm across, sub-globose, apiculate,

glandular.

Seeds : 0.4 mm long, oblong, truncate, grooved, black.

Weed ID Manual 327

 Verbesina encelioides (Cav.)Benth.
Common Name : Golden crownbeard
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : 0.3-1.6 m tall, covered with fine white hairs.

Leaves : Toothed or lobed; lower leaves are opposite

and triangular, while the upper leaves are
alternate and lance shaped. Both upper and
lower leaves feature fine white hairs on the
underside.

Flowers : Flower heads are found on elongated stalks

and resemble small sunflowers, 2.5 - 5.1 cm in
length,. either solitary, or in clusters of up to 3
heads; yellow to bright yellow in color.

Fruits : Achenes are grayish-brown, flat, and winged

along the margins. Seed size ranges between
5.4 - 6.7mm X 3.1- 3.66 mm, covered with fine
hairs.

328 Weed ID Manual

 Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less.
Common Name : Little ironweed
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect or rarely decumbent annual herb .

Stem : 15 - 75 cm tall, slender, grooved and ribbed.

Leaves : 2.5 - 5 cm long and 2 - 3.8 cm wide, variable in

shape, broadly elliptic or lanceolate, apex
obtuse or acute, base cuneate, margins
irregularly toothed or shallowly crenate-
serrate, membranous to coriaceous, sparsely
hairy on both surfaces.

Flowers : Florets pinkish-purple, heads about 20-

flowered, 6 mm in diameter, forming rounded
or flat-topped, paniculate, terminal or axillary,
corymbs.

Fruits : Achenes 1.3 mm long, 3-4 angled, densely silky

pubescent, slightly narrowed at base.

Weed ID Manual 329

 Vicia hirsuta (L.) S.F. Gray.
Common Name : Tiny vetch
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An annual herb .

Stem : Decumbent-ascending, 4-angled, winged, up

to 60 cm tall.

Leaves : Leaflets 4-10 pairs, 4-13 X 1.5-3.0 mm, linear

oblong, apex emarginate, truncate and
mucronate, base obtuse.

Flowers : Racemes 2-6 flowered, axillary; flowers pale

blue.

Fruits : Pods 8-10 X 3.5-4 mm, elliptic-oblong, flat,

pubescent.

Seeds : 2-3 mm across, compressed.

330 Weed ID Manual

 Vicia sativa L.
Common Name : Common vetch
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : An annual herb.

Stem : Decumbent-ascending, up to 60 cm tall.

Leaves : Leaflets 3-8 pairs, 1.5 - 2.5 x 0.2 - 0.4 cm, linear-
lanceolate or oblong, mucronate, base obtuse.

Flowers : Solitary or paired, axillary, purplish.

Fruits : Pods 3 - 4.2 x 0.4 - 0.6 cm, narrowly oblong,

beaked, pubescent.

Seeds : 3-4 mm across, blackish.

Weed ID Manual 331

 Vicoa auriculata Cass.
Common Name : Ladies' false fleabane
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : An erect annual herb.

Stem : Reddish and sparsely puberulous.

Leaves : Ovate-lanceolate, cordate, auriculate, sessile.

Flowers : Heads yellow, solitary, terminal or leaf-

opposed.

Fruits : Achenes angled.

332 Weed ID Manual

 Volutarella divaricata Benth & Hook.
Common Name : Oligochaeta
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A procumbent or spreading herb.

Stem : Angular, ribbed, thickened above the node,

more or less densely hairy.

Leaves : Sub-sessile, 2-4 cm long; lower leaves oblong-

obovate or lyrate, upper ones sinuately
pinnatifid, entire or toothed with mucronate
lobes, sparsely pubescent.

Flowers : Heads 1.2-2.2 cm long, ovoid, axillary and

terminal, purplish.

Fruits : Achenes 4-5 cm long, acutely angled, pitted in

the grooves; dull brown. Pappus hairs many,
5-16 mm long, unequal, shining brown.

Weed ID Manual 333

 Waltheria indica L.
Common Name : Sleepy morning.
Family : Malvaceae

Habit : A short-lived shrub or subshrub sometimes

reaching 2 m in height.

Stem : A single, strong stem emerging from the

ground, but frequently branches near the
ground. The young stems and leaves are
covered with a grey, velvety hairs.

Leaves : Alternate, narrowly ovate or oblong with a

rounded to heart-shaped base, irregularly
serrate edges, and a rounded to acute tip.

Flowers : Inflorescences usually are dense clusters in leaf

axils, that contain fragrant, yellow to orange
flowers.

Fruits : Capsule small, round, 2 mm diameter.

Seeds: Obovoid, tiny, black.

334 Weed ID Manual

 Wedelia chinensis (Osbeck) Merr.
Common Name : Chinese wedelia
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : A hairy annual herb.

Stem : Spreading with branches usually less than

50 cm long.

Leaves : Oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 2-4.5 cm in

length, and narrowed at both ends. The
margins are entire or obscurely toothed; both
surfaces are covered with sharp-pointed,
appressed, straight, and stiff hairs.

Flowers : The heads are stalked, about 1 cm in diameter,

and yellow.

Fruits : The achenes are nearly cylindric, hairy.

Weed ID Manual 335

 Xanthium strumarium L.
Common Name : Common cocklebur
Family : Asteraceae

Habit : Annual herb.

Stem : Stout and hairy, much branched, up to 1.5 m

tall.

Leaves : Leaves broadly triangular ovate or

suborbicular, scarbid or hispid on both
surfaces, apex acute, often 3-5 lobed,
irregularly serrate, base some what cordate or
shortly cuneate; petioles 2.5-7.5 cm long.

Flowers : Flower heads monoecious, numerous, white or

green, in terminal and axillary racemes; male
heads in upper axils, globose; female heads in
the lower axils, ovoid, covered with hooked
bristles, ending in 2 strong hooked beaks.

Fruits : Achenes 1.3 cm long, obovoid, compressed,

enclosed in a hardened, spinescent involucre.

336 Weed ID Manual

 Zornia gibbosa Spanoghe.
Common Name : Grasslike zornia
Family : Fabaceae

Habit : Annual herb.

Stem : Prostrate to suberect, up to 50 cm tall, branches

prostrate or ascending, glabrous or pubescent.

Leaves : Leaf bifoliolate, petiole 6.0-20 mm long; leaflets

sessile, 0.7-3.0 cm long, 3.5-10 mm broad,
lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or linear,
glandular punctate below, glabrous.

Flowers : Small in 3-12 flowered spicate racemes, 2.5 cm

long. Peduncles slender. Bracts foliaceous, up
to 1.3 cm long, black dotted, completely
enclosing the flower and often the entire pod.

Fruits : Pod 1-6 jointed, enclosed by the bracts or

exerted, joints 2.5 mm long and wide,
indehiscent, covered with short, straight,
fulvous spines.

Seeds : Ovoid to rounded in outline, seed surface

smooth, olive, brown, or black.

Weed ID Manual 337

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