Weed Flora of Tea Plantation of Golaghat, Assam with Special Emphasis on Life Form Classification
Punam Borah
Department of Botany, D.K.D College, Assam- 785614, India.
S. Upadhyaya
Department of Botany, D.K.D College, Assam- 785614, India.
D.K. Bora *
Department of Botany, D.K.D College, Assam- 785614, India and Department of THT, AAU, Jorhat, Assam-13, India.
D. Sharma
Department of Botany, D.K.D College, Assam- 785614, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Weeds are one of the main production constraints in agriculture. A life form is an important physiognomic character that have been widely used in vegetation studies of any area. This study was performed to find out the weed flora of tea plantations in Dergaon, Assam which have negatively affect the crop quality and yield. A total of 85 plant taxa were found as weeds in tea plantations. Out of the recorded taxa 67 are dicots and 18 are monocots. Total 15 different genera were recorded under monocots and 55 genera were recorded under dicots. The most commonly growing weeds in tea plantations in this area were Axonopus compressus, Cynodon dactylon, Ageratum conyzoides, Melastoma malabathricum. Therophytes (40%) are the dominant life form followed by hemicryptophytes (33%), chamaephytes (10%), phanerophytes (9%) and cryptophytes (8%).
Keywords: Camellia sinensis, tea, weed, lifeform, biological spectrum