Carpet weed, the scientific name of Axonopus compressus, exists as a grass that is less competitive with permanent crops for nutrients and water. Therefore it is considered a useful grass to be used as a ground cover plant. This grass is potentially used in farms or gardens to control other weeds. However, the effects of carpet weed also need to be reviewed in terms of effectiveness compared to ground cover legume plants.

A comparative study was conducted at UPM on 4-year-old oil palm plantations for 9 months. The results showed that the carpet weed took only 3 months to achieve 100% covered. For biomass production, carpet weed produces higher biomass production between the 4^th, 6^th and 9^th planting months compared to Mucuna bracteata between the same months. In this factor, it is clear that carpet weed also performs higher. 

In terms of wild weed control, carpet weed managed to reduce the growth rate and biomass by 100 times in the 4^th and 6^th months compared to Mucuna bracteata which only reduced the weed density by 20 times and biomass by 10 times between the 4^th month until the 9^th month. If weed A. Intrusa grows in the area of ​​ carpet weed, it can be removed by spraying dots on the weeds. Therefore, carpet weed and Mucuna bracteata can indeed be used as good ground cover plants, but rhizobium fungi are not found on the roots of carpet weed to produce rhizomes. Rhizobium fungi are able to store nitrogen from the air to be used as palm green fertilizer. Therefore, Mucuna bracteata is the main choice as a ground cover in the field compared to carpet weed.

  Mucuna bracteata                       Axonopus compressus

^{_{*The entire article can be read in Agricultural Info Issue 55*}}

Date of Input: 07/09/2020 | Updated: 07/09/2020 | fatma