Phytosociological Exploration of Weed Flora in Two Agroforestry Systems in District Yamuna Nagar of Haryana, India

Abstract

Weed flora of the rainy season has been explored for the study of phytosociological characters in two agroforestry systems in the district Yamuna Nagar of Haryana. The two sites selected were villages Bhojpur and Bhilpura, designated as sites Ⅰ and Ⅱ. Surveys of the sites were carried out from May to October 2025. The random quadrat sampling was done in the months of September and October to collect the data for community analysis.  A total of 31 weed plants from 15 families and 26 weeds belonging to 12 families were collected from sites Ⅰ and Ⅱ, respectively. Family Poaceae was reported to have the highest number of weed species at both sites. Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. had the highest frequency and IVI value at site Ⅰ, whereas these parameters were reported to be the highest for Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv. at site Ⅱ. The higher Shannon index value of the two sites indicated that the healthy ecosystems had a rich diversity of weeds. The species were more evenly distributed at both sites as per the calculated value of Pielou’s index. Moreover, the two agroforestry systems had higher similarity value, and many of the weed species were common in them. A phytosociological study of weed species helps us to enhance our understanding of the community structure. It also enables the farming practitioners and policy makers to evolve suitable strategies in order to have sustainable management of weeds