Sida cordifolia L.

Code

Growth form

Biological cycle

Habitat

Mayotte : Sida cordifolia flowers and fruits all year round.
New Caledonia: Seeds of Sida cordifolia germinate at the onset of the rainy season; individuals grow quickly and flower from the end of this season to produce mature fruit until the end of the fresh season (November). The aerial part of the plant dies, but new shoots develop from the root system.

Sida cordifolia grows wild in wastelands and along roadsides.

Comoros: Sida cordifolia is a species present in areas of low and medium altitude of the three islands of the Comoros. It is very common in abandoned wasteland, and along roadside.
Madagascar: ruderal and weed species spread throughout the island especially in dry areas (but less widespread than Malvastrum coromandelianum). Frequently on the edges of fields, their abundance is often indicative of compacted soil.
Mauritius: Absent.
Mayotte: Sida cordifolia is a common cryptogenic species in natural and secondarized open environments. It is found in particular in villages, crops, pastures, along paths from xerophilous to hygrophilous areas.
New Caledonia: Sida cordifolia is found frequently on roadsides, in cultivated fields, gardens and in dry forests where its frequency of occurrence is 25%
Reunion: This plant is found mainly at low altitude on the west coast of the island, on fallow land, along roadsides, in dry savannah and cultivated fields.
Seychelles: In clearings and abandoned places, it is rarely abundant.

Global harmfulness

Sida cordifolia is considered a serious crop weed in Brazil, South Africa and northern Australia.

Local harmfulness

Global control

In grassland, mowing only gives temporary control of Sida species and in arable land the deep, woody tap root makes control by cultivation difficult. Young seedlings can be killed by spraying 2,4-D or MPCA but resistance to these herbicides increase rapidly with age and formulations containing dicamba or picloram are needed to control established plants. Pre-emergence treatment with substituted ureas or triazines is effective in a variety of crop.

Management recommandations for perenial broad leaved plants in rice fields: http://portal.wiktrop.org/document/show/26

Biological control: As for other Sida spp., this species can be controlled by biological control agents (beetles Calligrapha felina, C. pantherina and Acanthoscelides brevipes).
 
Local control
 
Madagascar: Sida cordifolia is a species with low harmfulness in general. Manual weeding is very difficult because of its very powerful rooting system. Chemically, sidas are controlled by atrazine, diuron or oxadiazon pre-emergence, and 2,4-D or glyphosate on young plants. Adult plants are relatively tolerant to these herbicides.
New Caledonia: Control methods are identical to S. acuta and S. rhombifolia. Slashing with rotary cutters before flowering limits the propagation of the seeds but does not destroy the plant. Livestock should not be grazed in infested plots during the fruiting period. The herds coming from these plots nevertheless must stay 4 to 5 days in a quarantine plot. Herbicide-sprayed areas (2,4-D) can be rehabilitated on 2-week regrowths after gyro grinding at the beginning of the rainy season. However, herbicides become ineffective on adult individuals.

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Sida%2520cordifolia