The following information is adapted from Holm et al. (1977);Kostermans et al. (1987);Waterhouse and Norris (1987);Henty and Pritchard (1988);Parsons and Cuthbertson (1992) and Noda et al. (1994).
M. diplotricha is a scrambling, strongly branched shrub growing 1-2 m tall, woody at the base with age, with stems stretching to about 6 m long, forming low, tangled masses or climbing on other vegetation with the aid of its spiny stems. The green or purplish tinged stems are 4- or 5-angled in cross-section and covered with abundant sharp, recurved, yellowish spines, 3-6 mm long, on the angles and fine, white hairs. According to Henty and Pritchard (1988) the stems do not root above the base, but according to Kostermans et al. (1987) they do. The root system has a robust and branching taproot extending to 1-2 m in depth and often woody at the crown. There are characteristic rhizobial nodules on the root hairs.
The scattered bright-green leaves are finely bipinnate and 10-20 cm long. The leaves consist of 4-9 pairs of pinnae, 3-6 cm long, each with 12-30 pairs of opposite, sessile, lanceolate, acute leaflets, 6-12 mm long and 1.5 mm wide. The leaflet pairs fold together when touched and at nightfall, but they are considered as only moderately sensitive. The rachis is thickened at the base with slender, tapering stipules, and finely hairy with a few prickles along the back.
The flowers are pinkish-violet in colour and occur in globose heads about 12 mm in diameter, singly, in pairs or threes on individual stalks originating in the axils of young leaves. The peduncles are 6-10 mm long and hairy. The corolla is 2 mm long, regular, 4-lobed and green at the tips, with 8 pinkish-violet exserted stamens. The flat, softly spiny, linear, 3-6 seeded pods are 10-35 mm long, 6-10 mm wide, occur in clusters in the leaf axils and break into 1-seeded joints which fall away from unbroken sutures. The seeds are yellow-brown, glossy, flattened, ovate and 2-3.5 mm long. There is a horseshoe-shaped ring on each face. The plant reproduces only by seed.
Related invasive species
- Mimosa diplotricha
Related Farm Practice
- Plantations
- Tropical pastures
M. diplotricha (syn. M. invisa) is a small, often scrambling, neotropical shrub that has invaded many countries in the old tropics and many oceanic islands. In recent decades it has spread to new regions and has the potential to invade more tropical areas. It forms impenetrable spiny thickets that invade highly disturbed sites, but agricultural systems in particular. The shrub produces large quantities of seeds at an early age and has a persistent seed bank. It is extremely difficult to control effectively using mechanical or chemical means, however, biological control programmes have had a large degree of success.
M. diplotricha is the principal weed of rubber and coconut in Papua New Guinea, rubber in Indonesia, sugarcane in Taiwan and the Philippines, lychee in Thailand, and tomato in the Philippines. It is considered a weed of sugarcane in Australia and India;cassava, soyabeans, maize, apple, citrus and tea in Indonesia;coconut in Sri Lanka;rubber in Malaysia;banana and tea in India;and abaca (Musa textilis) and pineapple in the Philippines (Wong, 1975;Holm et al., 1977;Tea Research Association, 1977;Aliudin and Kusumo, 1978;Taepongsorut, 1978;Mendoza, 1979;Suwanarak, 1988;Groves, 1991;Muniappan and Viraktamath, 1993). It is also considered a major threat to tropical pastures in Australia (Groves, 1991;Willson and Garcia, 1992), the Pacific islands (Swarbrick, 1989;Willson and Garcia, 1992), Papua New Guinea (Henty and Pritchard, 1988) and the Philippines (Holm et al., 1977). It is a weed of lowland rice in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam;of dry-seeded rice in the Philippines;and of upland rice in Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam (Kostermans et al., 1987;Moody, 1989). It is potentially the worst weed in plantations and arable lands of Fiji and the Philippines (Holm et al., 1977). It is also a weed of betelnut palm, arabica coffee, apples, cassava, banana and tobacco.