Laggera crispata (Vahl) Hepper & J.R.I.Wood

Code

LGGPT

Growth form

broadleaf

Biological cycle

annual

Habitat

terrestrial

Northern Cameroon: Laggera crispata is a species of end of the cultural cycle. Germination begins in the middle of the rainy season (August), followed by a long period of vegetation. Flowering occurs from October, when the rains are spaced, and lasts until December. Seed dispersal occurs at the beginning of the dry season (December to February), until the plant dries out.
China: Laggera crispata flowers and fruits from January to July.
Madagascar: Laggera crispata is flowering by the end of the cropping season, during the dry season from June, mainly between June and September.
Mayotte: Laggera crispata flowers from January to December and fruits from February to December.

Both species are erect annual or biennial herbs, becoming woody at the base, with simple leaves, alternate, sessile, oblong, decurrent in large uninterrupted wings, more or less toothed margins. The following main characters distinguish them quite easily.

Northern Cameroon: Laggera crispata grows in the Sudanese climate region with an annual rainfall of more than 1,300 mm and a dry season duration of less than 5 months. It has no notable soil preference. It develops in ruderal species on the roadsides and in villages and in weeds in annual crops. Its abundance increases with the age of the plot. It is a nitrophilous species which is favored by the strong fertilizer inputs used in the intensive cultivation systems of these regions.
China: Laggera crispata grows on dry hillsides, old clearings, high-altitude rice fields and wasteland; below 2000 m altitude.
Madagascar: Laggera crispata grows in ferralitic soils with medium or low fertility, in sunny places. It is a ruderal plant and a weed of crops in cropping systems based on cassava or fruit crops more or less extensive, on slopes and on the edge of cultures and water channels from 800 to 1600 m above sea level in the regions of the Central Highlands, Middle west, Middle east.
Mayotte: L. crispata is uncommon in open and secondarized environments. It is found on padza, in xerophilous lawns and thickets, in crops and in urban areas.
Reunion: Species mentioned in humid areas of altitude, Cilaos, Plaine d’Affouches, Saint-Denis.

Local harmfulness

Madagascar: Laggera crispata is a weed with low frequency and low abundant in crops. It does not present any particular difficulty to control. This is weed that likes edges of fields and water channels on the highlands above 800 m. In rare cases L. crispata may be abundant in the more or less extensive crops on slops (fruit crops, cassava).
Reunion: Species growing in mesothermic environments but not observed in agricultural plots.

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT for Laggera crispata: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Laggera%2520crispata

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT for Laggera pterodonta: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Laggera%2520pterodonta