Common name : Lovegrass, feather lovegrass
Common name in Bengali : Shada fulka
Common name in Hindi : Bharbhusi
Bangla English Hindi Urdu
Diagnostic characters
Biology
Ecology and distribution
Nuisance
Weed control
Botany
Uses/Remark
References
Eragrostis tenella is a small densely tufted annual grass, with variable size, usually not much more than 50cm high. Clums glabrous, spindly, the nodes at the base, may be ramified or not. Leaves up to 10cm long. Inflorescence usually with many slender spreading branches.
E. tenella is a prolific seed producer. One plant produces 140000 seeds. It is a very competitive species, with a rapid growth rate and fast production of erect tillers and leaves.
It occurs in crops, waste places, old walls, lawns, roadsides, beach dikes and gardens. It thrives on both permeable and impermeable soils, and is often found in compacted and stony areas.
E. tenella is native of tropical Asia. Introduced and now widely distributed in tropical regions of America and Africa.
E. tenella is considered a weed of minor agricultural importance. This grass is common in upland rice in India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and present in Bangladesh, Lao PDR and Myanmar.
- Cultural
E. tenella can be controlled by cultivation, especially when followed by dry conditions, which promote desiccation of uprooted plants. - Chemical
Post-emergence application of 2_4-D at 500 g.I/ha or pre-emergence application of butachlor at 1.5 kg a.I/ha, Anilophos at 400 g/ha, Pretilachlor at 1.0 kg/ha.
Habit
Small densely tufted annual grass, with variable size, usually not much more than 50cm high.
Roots
Fasciculate roots.
Stem
Culm tufted, glabrous and green.
Leaves
Leaves up to 10cm long; sheaths split, glabrous; blade linear, narrowed to the tip, venation parallel and with the midnerve raised underneath, the margins are rough, green on both sides; ligule with a ring of five soft hairs.
Inflorescence
Variable in size, up to about 15cm long, usually with many slender spreading branches 2 to 4cm long or shorter, spikelets small, usually about 0.2 to 0.25cm long, with 3 to 6 florets, pale green tinged with violet color, anthers purple, paleas with stiff, slender spreading hairs on their keels.
Fruit
Caryopsis shed with its glumes, ellipsoid, brown, 0.4 to 0.7mm long.
- Galinato M., Moody K., Piggin C. M. 1999. Upland rice weeds of South and Southeast Asia. IRRI. Philippines.
- Radanachaless T., Maxwell J. F. 1994. Weeds of soybean fields in Thailand. Multiple Cropping Center Publications. Thailand.
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