Weed Population Assessment in Wheat at Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Study was conducted on Weed Population Assessment in Wheat at Adea, Gimbichu, Minjar shenkora, Akaki, Boro and Lume Districts in Central Highlands of Ethiopia during, 2014/15 main cropping season to determine the distribution of weed species in wheat growing areas of central highlands of Ethiopia and to record the weed infestation level on wheat crop production. Depending on the area coverage of Wheat in each Districts seven to three kebeles, again in each kebele six to four from Wheat fields samples were taken using 0.5 x 0.5m quderate and GPS instrument. The frequency, abundance and dominance regarding different aspects of weeds were calculated. The result revealed that 45 weed species belonging to 33 families as weeds of wheat for each species was calculated. The 5 major families based on number of taxa were: Poaceae (14), Asteraceae (7), three species each under Polygonaceae and Solanaceae, and Papilionaceae (2), totally they contain 66% of the total weed flora. The most frequent, abundant and dominant weed species were found to be setaria pumila, Plantago lanceolata, Bromus pecpectinatus, Cyperus rotudus, Xanthium strumarium L. and Snowdenia polystachya. Greater than 60% similarity index of weed communities was registered across all locations sampled.