Babila Sida rhombifolia

Common name  –   Babila

Botanical name   –   Sida rhombifolia

Family –   Malvaceae

Life cycle  –   Annual sometimes perennial 

Morphology

• Erect small shrub, branching from base, to 1 m high. 
• Plants develop a thick taproot. Stems pale green with fibrous bark.
• Leaves lanceolate, 1.5–8.5 cm long, 0.6–4 cm wide; dull green above, greygreen below; margins irregularly toothed; on stalk 1–6 cm long, with stipules 0.5–1 cm long at the base. 
• Petals 7–8 mm long, yellow, united at the base
• Fruit 5–6 mm wide separating into 1-seeded mericarps (fruitlets). Mericarps 2–2.5 mm long, dark brown, vertically 2-ribbed on the back.

Propagation 

• Spread by seed or movement of root buds

Agricultural usage/ importance 

• Paddy's Lucerne is a serious competitor for light and nutrients in both crops and pastures. It is becoming a problem in soybeans and vegetable crops, cotton in, tobacco and pastures 
• Its seed may contaminate harvested material
• Plants have been used for medicinal purposes and stems for fibre.

Control methods 

Small outbreaks can be grubbed out before flowering, with care being taken to cut the root well below the surface to prevent or minimise regrowth. Larger areas can be controlled through repeated cultivation but this may not be practical.Generals slashing of plants before flowering help reduce seed production in infected areas. The spread of seed from infected paddocks to uninfected paddocks can be reduced if stock are yarded for four to five days before hand, this allowing time for digested seed to have been excreted and seed attached to their hides to have been brushed off