Weed Herbarium

Arail

Common Name: Swamp Rice Grass
Scientific Name: Leersia hexandra Swartz
Family Name: Gramineae
Type: Grass

Identification Notes

EPPO Code

LERHE

Life Cycle

Perennial

Morphology

Culm – decumbent at the base, rooting at the lower nodes, nodes swollen and curved with short hairs. Leaves – blades narrowly linear, flat, rolled when dry, ligule membranous, the margins extending into sheath margins. Inflorescence – a panicle, spikelets 1-flowered, oblong, strongly compressed laterally, hispidulous, sometimes glabrous.

Growing season

Rabi and Kharif (January to December)

Germination period

January to December

Flowering period

May to October

Propagation

By seed and by vegetative means.

Habitat

Prefer moist condition. Found in the aus rice, jute and other low land crops.

Weed potential

Leersia hexandra is a major rice weed in Madagascar, the Philippines, and Sarawak and a major weed in Guyana and Brazil. It is one of the aquatic weed flora of flooded rice in South-East Asia. It can be found in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Suriname, and Thailand as a weed of flooded or irrigated rice. It's a major tea weed in Indonesia. According to reports, it has also been shown to be a weed of sugarcane in Australia, the Philippines, and Tanzania, as well as maize in Indonesia.

Control measure

Manual weeding, Chemical weed control or Integrated Weed Management

Recommended herbicide

Pendimethalin, Oxadiargyl, and Acetachlor + bensulfuranmethyl

Distribution

South and Southeast Asia

Medicinal properties

Leersia hexandra is used to treat hypertension.

Department of Agronomy

Bangladesh Agricultural University