Weed flora in the Middle Valley of the Guadalquivir, Spain

A floristic study of the weeds in irrigated crops in the Guadalquivir River Valley (southern Spain) revealed a total of 284 species in the 267 fields surveyed, of which about 100 can be considered highly harmful. The families with the highest numbers of species were Compositae, Gramineae, Leguminosae, Cruciferae and Umbelliferae. Although 77·8% of the species were therophytes, geophytes were important in spring-sown crops. Most species were of Mediterranean origin, especially in autumn-sown crops; Cosmopolitan and Neotropical species were more important in the spring-sown crops. At the early and late crop growth stages 7% and 10%, respectively, of the fields had severe or very severe infestations. The relationships between the main weed species and crops were studied by cluster analysis, using the corrected frequency of each species in each crop as the reference parameter. This allowed classification of the species into subgroups and hierarchical groups according to their agro-ecological preferences. A close relationship was found between a given crop, its cycle and the usual soil management practices and the phenology of certain species, reflecting the influence of these factors in restricting the germination period. The analysis differentiated the typically winter, summer and intermediate weed floras.