Abstract:

To clarify the weedy flora and community structure of maize field in Hubei province, the weed in maize field in Hubei were surveyed by sampling methods of inverted W-pattern. The results showed that total 100 weed species (including varieties) belonging to 32 families and 80 genera were obtained in maize fields in Hubei, the most abundant weed species consisting of 25 weed species were found from family Asteraceae, which was followed by 12 species from Poaceae, seven species from Polygonaceae, and five species from Amaranthaceae. Among them, seven species with occurrence frequency≥50% and overall relative abundance (RA)≥2.0, Digitaria sanguinalis, Echinochloa crus-galli, Acalypha australis, Setaria viridis, Eleusine indica, Eclipta prostrata, and Amaranthus hybridus were considered as dominant weeds; The 12 species with occurrence frequency <50% and regional RA≥4.0, Cyperus rotundus, Commelina acutispatha, Persicaria nepalensis, Leptochloa panicea, Alternanthera philoxeroides, Bidens pilosa, Xanthium strumarium, Portulaca oleracea, Sedum emarginatum, Mollugo stricta, Celosia argentea and Cyperus difformis were regional dominant weeds; The 24 species with occurrence frequency≥15% and regional RA<4.0 were common weeds; and the remaining 57 species were normal weeds. Based on analysis of Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson’s index and evenness index, the species diversity of Yichang, Enshi and Xianning were relatively higher, and those of the lowest region was in Jingmen. Grass weeds occupied a position of prominence in maize field, and top five grass weeds represented 38.78% of overall relative abundance.

Key words: Maize, Weed community, Relative abundance, Species diversity, Grass weed