Occurrence of weed species in pear orchards in chungnam province of Korea

A survey of weed occurrence was conducted to identify noxious weed species in pear orchards to obtain basic information for effective weed control. The survey was conducted in pear orchards situated in Chungnam province of Korea from April to June 2015, for spring, and from September to October 2015, for autumn. A total of 19 survey sites were randomly selected. The weed species were summarized as a total of 63 taxa belonging to 24 families. Specifically, 18 exotic weeds, belonging to 9 families, were identified. The majority of weeds were Compositae (10), followed by Poaceae (7) and Polygonaceae (6). Rumex crispus and Poa annua were dominant weeds. In terms of life cycle, there were 17 species of annual weeds, 13 species of biennial weeds, and 17 species of perennial weeds for the spring survey, and 15 species of annual weeds, 6 species of biennial weeds, and 11 species of perennial weeds for the autumn survey. The continuous application of single control method was unbeneficial for weed management in pear orchards. These results could be useful for the establishment of weed multi-control methods in pear orchards in Chungnam province of Korea.