D. cordata is a weak prostrate or creeping annual, or less commonly perennial, herb up to 50 cm across or tall, usually with a mass of extensively branched, trailing stems which may root at the nodes.
Roots are fibrous, shallow, mainly from the base of the stem but also from the lower nodes where the soil is moist.
Stems are weak, trailing or ascending, usually extensively branched to form a dense mat in the centre of the plant, smooth and slender, sometimes hairy, with swollen nodes.
Leaves in opposite pairs on slender 3-10 mm long petioles, round to heart-shaped or oval with rounded bases, smooth margins and rounded or bluntly pointed tips, 5-25 mm long and wide, hairless, weakly three-nerved, and paler below. Very short stipules persist at the bases of the petioles.
Flowers in small repeatedly forked terminal or axillary clusters (cymes), on slender, densely hairy, 5-15 mm long pedicels. The flowers consist of five narrow green sepals 2-4 mm long, five, deeply forked, white petals which are shorter than the sepals, and two or three stamens surrounding the deeply divided style. The fruit is a papery capsule 2-3 mm across, splitting at maturity into three parts to release the 5-10 small reddish tuberculate flattened seeds.
The seedlings have epigeal germination. The hypocotyls are slender, erect, and about 5 mm long, the cotyledons resemble the adult leaves, and the first leaves develop in tight clusters in their axils.
Related invasive species
- Drymaria cordata
Related Farm Practice
- Hosts
- Pastures
- Soil
- Release
D. cordata is a vigorous fast-growing herb included in the Global Compendium of Weeds (Randall, 2012) and listed as one of the most aggressive weeds invading moist habitats in tropical and subtropical regions of the world (Holm et al., 1997;USDA-ARS, 2014). It is listed as a weed in 31 crops in more than 45 countries within and outside its native distribution range. D. cordata produces large amount of seeds (600 seeds/plants) and also spreads vegetatively rooting from the nodes, which is a trait that enable plants to multiply rapidly and colonize large areas very quickly. It has the potential to harm other plants by smothering them under a solid blanket of leaves and by climbing into the bushes (Holm et al., 1997).
D. cordata almost certainly occurs in a much wider range of plantation and vegetable crops than indicated in the host list. It is also a weed in moist lawns, gardens, pastures, roadsides, riverbanks, ditches, around houses, and in all other moist, disturbed, cultivated and uncultivated areas. It is considered to be a weed of 31 crops in more than 45 countries around the world.