Paspalum distichum L.

Code

PASDS

Growth form

Grass

Biological cycle

Vivacious

Habitat

Marshland

Algeria: Germination of Paspalum distichum is not observed; rhizomatous buds emerge in late spring and throughout the summer; flowering takes place from July to September.
West Indies: Paspalum distichum flowers intermittently all around the year.

Paspalum distichum is a vivacious species that multiplies mainly vegetatively by rhizomes and stolons. It also produces seeds that are rarely viable.

Paspalum distichum is a species quite similar to P. vaginatum. The latter grows in a salty wet environment and has a weakly externalized inflorescence, flattened spikelets and more or less involute blue-green leaves and a membrano-ciliated ligule and sheath and ciliated knots.
 

Characters to distinguish several Paspalum species
 

Paspalum distichum is a C4 species.

Paspalum distichum is a plant of unsalted wet places, ditches, swamps, banks of streams and ponds. Weed of unsalted rice fields.

Algeria: Paspalum distichum is an uncommon species in summer vegetables, citrus orchards and along irrigation canals in the country. A thermophilic, hygrophilic, nitrophilic grass, in C4, its development takes place as long as the soil remains humid. Preference for moist clay or alluvial soils. Its presence always indicates an excess of irrigation (permanently soaked or even flooded soil). Withstands polluted water from urban areas.
West Indies: present from 0 to 50 m of altitude.
Indonesia: It grows in humid to flooded, open or slightly shaded areas. often along polluted streams in villages, sometimes aquatic, between 0 and 1500 m altitude. In upland rice and in tidal ricet.

Global harmfulness

Paspalum distichum is an important weed in direct seeded rice fields. It can be vigorous under favorable conditions; It is moreover difficult to control.

Local harmfulness

Algeria: Paspalum distichum is a minor "weed". Uncommon and not very abundant, it is generally not a nuisance for the crop. The high availability of mineral nitrogen in the soil at the beginning of the crop cycle favours the growth of this nitophilic species more than the cultivated plant; late sowing (false sowing technique) therefore helps to limit the fouling of the crop by this species.
Benin: rare and scanty in paddy fields.
Ivory Coast: rare and scanty in paddy fields.
Uganda: rare and scanty in paddy fields.
Tanzania: frequent and scanty in paddy fields.

Livestock feed: Paspalum distichum is a good fodder plant.

Global control

Cultural: The appearance of this weed in the rice fields can be reduced not manual pulling of the initial shoots, from the edge of the field, one month after sowing. But manual control is difficult because of its propensity to regenerate from fragments.
Chemical: Before emergence, apply a butachlor-based herbicide at 1.5 kg / ha, anilophos at 400 g / ha, or pretilachlor at 1.0 kg / ha.

Local control

Pakistan: Pre-germinated herbicides such as Machete 60 EC (butachlor) at 2.5 l / ha and Topstar (oxadiargyl) at 0.8 l / ha can prevent germination in rice fields.

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