Keekiridiya Eclipta prostrata

Common name  - Keekiridiya

Botanical name  - Eclipta prostrata

Family  - Asteraceae

Life cycle  - Perennial or Annual

Morphology 

• A prostrate or reclining to erect, often branched, annual or perennial herb, 30 – 100cm tall.
• Stem: cylindrical, green or purplish, rooting at basal nodes, and often covered with long white hairs.
• Leaf: oblong to lance-shaped, opposite, sessile or short-stalked, with more or less coarse hairs; margins entire or slightly toothed, up to 2 - 16cm long.
• Inflorescence: terminal and axillary, about 1cm across, white or cream, on peduncles to 7cm long.
• Fruit: achene, densely warted, either brown or black, 2 - 3mm long.

Propagation 

• By seeds

Agricultural usage/ importance 

• A common weed of rainfed lowland rice in the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, and other crops, including sugarcane, flax, taro, papaya, banana, soybean, vegetables, and cotton.
• Alternate host of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.). 

Control method 

• Hand weeding.
• Pre-emergence application of oxadiazon or post-emergence spraying of either 2, 4-D or MCPA reported to be effective.