FLORAL DIVERSITYAND LIFE FORM OF WEEDS IN THE FIELD OF TRITICUM AESTIVUM IN SOME SELECTED AREAS OF DISTRICT BHIMBER AZAD KASMIR
Abstract
Present study was conducted to document the ecological diversity of weeds in wheat fields. Ten weed communities at different elevations from 340m to 520m were studied in District Bhimber Azad Kashmir. Forty (40) weed species belonging to 22 families and 39 genera were reported in wheat fields. Grassy weeds were dominant in all the selected sites. The dominant families on the basis of family importance values (FIV) in wheat were Poaceae and Asteraceae. The biological spectrum of weeds showed t
hat therophytes dominate with 70.73% followed by 15.45% geophytes. The soil texture differs from loam, clay loam and sandy loam. Basic pH and organic matter varied from 0.55 to 1.04, saturation from 48% to 22%, phosphorus 4.00 to 8.00ppm, potassium 68 to 146ppm and electrical conductivity 0.144 to 0.45. This research work forms the basis towards the organization of a weed flora, which could be useful in the same way for both taxonomists as well as other plant scientists.