Murdannia nudiflora

Botanical Description

Murdannia nudiflora is an annual to perennial plant with slender, fibrous roots. Young plants produce a basal rosette of leaves, disappearing in older plants which have one to several creeping stems around 10 - 115cm long. The stems often produce new roots at the nodes[ 266 Title Flora of China Publication Author Website http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ Publisher Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. Year 1994 ISBN Description An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available. , 372 Title Flowers of India Publication Author Website http://www.flowersofindia.net/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description A wed site of native Indian plants, plus cultivated and naturalized species. It has good quality photos and terse details on more than 3,000 species and cultivars. , 1093 Title Invasive Species Compendium Publication Author Website http://www.cabi.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc). ]. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and a medicine. Murdannia nudiflora is a common and widespread plant that faces no known major threats. The plant is classified as 'Least Concern' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(2015)[ 2183 Title Revision of the genus (Commelinaceae) in India Publication Phytodiversity Vol.2 (1); 56-112; 2015 Author Nandikar M.D. & Gurav R.V. Publisher Year 2015 ISBN 2349-7068 Description ]. Murdannia nudiflora is classified as one of the world's worst weeds, infesting no less than 16 crops in 23 countries. It is a major weed species in rice and other crops, and is a moderately invasive weed species both in agricultural crops and non-agricultural areas in South and South-east Asia. Its special ability to root easily at the nodes, propagating clonally through cut stems and dispersal during tillage and land preparation make this weed difficult to control. This trait coupled with its ability to adapt and survive a wide ecological window of soil types, pH, moisture availability and soil drainage makes the plant a weed to watch for potential spread into new areas in the near future, and a species under the 'alert list' by the Invasive Species Specialist Group[ 1093 Title Invasive Species Compendium Publication Author Website http://www.cabi.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc). ].