Latin name

Cleome viscosa L.

Family

Capparaceae

Common name(s)

Wild mustard, and tickweed

Synonym(s)

Polanisia viscosa (L.) DC. (accepted), P. icosandra (L.) Wight & Arn., Arivela viscosa (L.) Raf., C. icosandra L.

Geographical distribution

Asia: China.

South and Southeast Asia: India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Rest of the world: Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Madagascar, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, United States (southeastern), and Venezuela.

Morphology

An erect annual herb, up to 120—cm—tall.

Stem: cylindrical and densely covered with glandular hairs.

Leaf: palmately compound with 3—6 leaflets, alternately arranged on the stem; leaflets hairy, oblong to obovate; 1—3—cm—long and 0.5—1.5—cm—wide.

Inflorescence: elongated terminal and leafy raceme; flowers in leaf axils, solitary; petals yellow, narrowly obovate and 2.5—8—mm—long.

Fruit: cylindrical, hairy pod, narrowed at both ends, up to 9—cm—long.

Seed: dark brown, rounded to obovate and wrinkled.

Biology and ecology

An annual herb; flowers year-round; flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon; reproduces by seeds; commonly found in dryland field crops and rainfed rice.

Agricultural importance

Widespread weed in annual crops and disturbed areas; rarely a major problem.

Management

Cultural control: in India, weeding with a hoe, wheel hoe, or hand used to control this weed.

Chemical control: no information is available on chemical management.

Selected references

Hafliger TJ, Wolf M, Cook CDK, Crovello TJ, Hiepko P. 1988. Dicot weeds 1. Basle (Switzerland): CIBA-GEIGY Ltd. 335 p.

Jacobs M. 1960. Capparidaceae. Flora Malesiana Ser. 1 6:61-105.

Moody K. 1989. Weeds reported in rice in South and Southeast Asia. Manila (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute. 442 p.

Moorthy BTS, Das FC. 1992. Performance evaluation of two manually operated weeders in upland rice. Orissa J. Agric. Res. 5(1-2):36-41.

Soerjani M, Kostermans AJGH, Tjitrosoepomo G. 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Jakarta (Indonesia): Balai Pustaka. 716 p.

Sundari A, Sureshkumar SM. 2003. A non-pesticidal cultural method for controlling weeds in groundnut-soil solarization. Crop Res. (Hisar) 26(3):429-431.

Contributors

JLA Catindig, RT Lubigan, and DE Johnson