Urochloa panicoides

Other common names:

Kuri millet (Zimbabwe) and garden urochloa (South Africa).

 

Description:

An annual tufted weed that can grow up to 100 cm tall. The weed has been used for grazing and can therefore tolerate heavy routine mowing which promotes lateral growth and development. The leaves are very distinctive being usually loosely to densely hairy. The inflorescence can contain 2-7(-10) racemes which are 1-7cm long. The weed seeds heavily and spreads rapidly by seed.

 

Susceptible Turf:

Warm- and cool-season turfgrasses.

 

Symptoms:

Optimum temperature for growth is between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius; min temp is about 15 degrees Celsius. It is susceptible to frost. The weed can be found growing in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales (AusGrass, 2011), with the eastern coast being more dominant. Seed can germinate at 20 degrees Celsius; it germinates in spring and early summer and often dies out in autumn (Skerman and Riveros, 1990).

 

Control options:

• Pesticides: See available tabs below for registered products. Use as per label instructions.
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Use a combination of approaches listed on this page.
• Cultural:
  • The weed has poor drought tolerance and does not like flooding.
  • Seed only remains viable for a short time in the soil surface layers, but persistence increases with depth of seed burial. Only 1-2% of seed remained viable after 2 years of burial at the 1-2cm soil depth, in contrast to approximately 20% remaining after 2 years of burial at 10cm depth. Thus, effective management over 2-3 years in zero tilled systems can reduce the seed-bank to minimal levels (Walker et al., no date).
• Mechanical: When present in small or low quantities, the weed can be removed by hand. Do this prior to the weed seeding.

 

Disclaimer:

Turf Finder or its developer accepts with no responsibility for any consequences whatsoever resulting from the use of any information or product(s) listed herein. Products are to be applied as per label instructions.