Alternanthera pungens Kunth

Code

ALRRE

Growth form

broadleaf

Biological cycle

perennial

Habitat

terrestrial

Brazil: Alternanthera pungens germinates in the warm season and flowers and fruits from summer to autumn.
Chine : Alternanthera pungens flowers in May and fruits in July.
Mayotte: Alternanthera pungens flowers from October to April and fruits from November to June.

Alternanthera pungens is a prostrate perennial plant that reproduces by seed and cuttings. Spiny inflorescences are scattered by humans and animals by attaching themselves to clothing and fur.

Alternanthera pungens is found on sand, sandy or clay soils, with medium shade, but it also supports sunshine. It is fond of plowed soils, with a preference for wet soils.

Benin: Alternanthera pungens is found in littoral and fluviolacustrine sandy zones, vertisols in the Sudano-Guinean region, and in the Sudano-Guinean transitional or Sudanese northeastern region.
Brazil: Alternanthera pungens prefers disturbed and moist soils. It occurs on roadsides and paths and on abandoned land.
China: Alternanthera pungens is a ruderal species, present along roadsides.
Madagascar: This species prefers ferruginous soils, ferralitic soils, alluvial soils and vertic soils, which are relatively fertile. It is present in the semi-arid and sub-humid agro-ecological zones of Madagascar at an altitude ranging from 0 to 1200 m. It develops on the edges of paths and bare places around homes. It is a weed of rainfed crops and pastures in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones, sunny places. It is found in cotton and cassava-based cropping systems, semi-intensive with little or no manure.
Mauritius: It is found particularly in sub-humid and humid areas in vacant lots, along roadsides, often in exposed and trampled areas.
Mayotte: This species is not present in the cultures. It is found on the littoral rocks of the islets and xerophilous points. It is also present in the degraded dry stations, on compacted grounds.

Local harmfulness

Benin: Alternanthera pungens is rare but abundant when it is present.
Madagascar: Species recently introduced in the large island and extending into all the semi-arid and sub-humid zones; it has a relatively weak frequency now and is generally not very abundant in the cultures. At the beginning, the sparse trees develop practically unperceived and produce dried fruits which are dispersed during every dry season to quickly form a dense population very difficult to control. A. pungens can be locally abundant in semi-arid dry zone with strong population density. This species is particularly harmful in the relatively overloaded pastures and the edges of the cultures and the ways in dry zone where the fruits prickles obstruct the circulation of the inhabitants and are propagated everywhere by the animals, the man and the wind during the dry season.
Mauritius: Its capacity to form dense covers on the ground can be favorable to it to strongly compete for water and fertilizers with young cultures like sugar cane.

Medicinal: The whole plant of Alternanthera pungens is used against venereal diseases, constipation with colic, diarrhea. Treatment against neuralgia by inhalling the juice of heated leaves. The plant can stimulate lactation.

Global management

Management recommendations for vivacious broadleaf weeds in irrigated and lowland rice in Africa: http://portal.wiktrop.org/document/show/26

Chemical management
Alternanthera pungens is slightly susceptible to 2.4-D. except at high doses; formulations containing picloram are more effective

Local management

Madagascar: The control of Alternanthera pungens in cropping systems with cotton or corn in Southwest of Madagascar requires good soil preparation and manual weeding at the right time. Early treatments with herbicides are effective against broadleaf weeds.
Mauritius: It can be easily controlled by herbicides used in sugarcane. It is weeded at young stage in other cultures.

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