A Study of Distribution of Weed Flora and Importance Value Index in Late-Sown Wheat

A detailed floristic survey using random sampling was done during two years (2022-23 & 2023-24) of study. Among the weed species, some were present throughout the cropping period while some appeared at later stages of crop and few showed shorter life cycle. It clearly indicates that these weeds have flourished well by weed seed bank. It provided a clue to species diversity in a community and each species that had its own range of ecological amplitude which indicate the condition of the habitat. In the first season of the study, 15 weed species (13 broadleaved weeds, 1 grass and 1 sedge) belonging to 12 families and 12 genera were identified. Among the total species the diversity of the species was found within Fabaceae (3 species), Poaceae (2 species) and the remaining families had only 1 species each. In the second year of the study, the weed population was comparatively lesser and only 10 weed species belonging to the same 9 families and 9 genera were identified. As many as 15 species of weeds were recorded in the field during both the cropping periods. Fabaceae and Poaceae had three and two species respectively while the remaining ten families had only one species each. Monocot were represented by Poaceae and Cyperaceae. Anagallis arvensis L. and Chenopodium album L. were among the broadleaved weeds, followed by annual grassy weed Phalaris minor L. and the perennial sedge Cyperus rotundus L. were the most dominant weeds which were present. The field was mainly infested with the broad-leaved weeds (78.57%), along with grasses (14.29%) and sedges (7.14%). The weed species occurring were compared and it was observed that 75.32% of weeds species were similar, conversely it may be stated that 24.68% of weeds were dis-similar compared to the previous year.