Occurrence Characteristics of Weed Flora in Arable Fields of Korea

The nationwide weed survey was conducted in arable land, paddy field, upland, orchard and pasture, over whole country of Korea during 3 years from 2013 to 2015. Also, these survey were conducted in order to determine a change of weed community and to identify a major dominant weed species, and problem weeds. Weeds of arable land were composed of 619 species belonging to 81 families. Weeds occurred in paddy field were 90 species belonging to 28 families, upland weeds were 375 species of 50 families, orchard weeds were 492 species of 63 families and pasture weeds 275 species of 52 families. Among total 81 families, the Asteraceae (15.5%) was the biggest family, followed by Poaceae (13.1%), Fabaceae (5.5%), Cyperaceae (5.2%), Polygonaceae (6.3%), respectively. And these weed species were composed of annual weeds of 209 species (33.8%), winter annual of 102 species (16.4%) and perennial weeds of 308 species (49.8%). Exotic weeds naturalized in Korea were investigated as 166 species. Weed flora in Korean cultivation area have been increased as much as 13 families and 186 species for 10 years compared to 2000~2004 weed survey result of 68 families and 433 species. The increment could be resulted from the change of weed population such as increase of the herbicide-resistant and the difference of investigation method.