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The Significance of Soil Burning (“Guie”) in Ethiopia with Special Regard to its Effects on the Agrestal Weed Flora
Author(s) -
Pülschln L.,
Koch W.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of agronomy and crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.095
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-037X
pISSN - 0931-2250
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-037x.1990.tb00815.x
Subject(s) - weed , biology , agronomy , fabaceae , cover crop , botany , hordeum vulgare , repens , crop , plant ecology , flora (microbiology) , poaceae , abundance (ecology) , ecology , genetics , bacteria
Soil burning (“guie”) is a traditional farming practice in restricted areas of the Ethiopian highlands. Sods with adherent soil of grazed fallows are burnt which leads to comparatively high yields of the subsequent barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) crop. The weed species coverage and steadiness on burnt and unburnt spots of guie fields have been surveyed within the 1984/85 and 1985/86 growing periods using the Braun‐Blanquet cover‐abundance scale. On burnt spots weeds developed just about 1/3 of the cover on unburnt ones with a comparatively low share of monocotyledonous species. The total number of species collected was 103 (of 33 families) on unburnt spots and 77 on burnt ones. The average number of species/site was 39 and 26 respectively. The Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Caryophyllaceae were the most diverse families recorded with 27, 12, 10 and 6 species respectively. Species of highest steadiness like Ranunculus multifidus Forsk., Polygonum nepalense Meissn., Guizotia scabra (Vis.) Chiov. and Dicbondra repens J. R. & G. Forst. were significantly reduced in cover due to burning.