An Update of Weed Flora of Vıneyards ın Northwestern Turkey

The weed flora of vineyards in northwestern Turkey was determined in a survey carried out in 93 vineyards. Total of 68 species 53 dicotyledonous and 11 monocotyledonous belonging to 32 families were identified in grape growing areas. The majority of weed species were annual species with different vegetation periods. The dominant weed species in the region were Capsella bursa pastoris, Convolvulus arvensis, Senecio vulgaris, Stellaria media, Sorghum halepense, Euphorbia helioscopia. Meanwhile frequent families were Poaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, Geraniaceae, Lamiaceae, Polygonaceae and Euphorbiaceae.

rootstocks. In addition many weeds such as Datura stramonium and Convolvulus arvensis were found to host common grapevine diseases including Grapevine Fanleaf Virus and Rhizobium vitis. Root damage of Root Knot Nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) were also observed in Purtulaca oleraceae and some other weeds. Weed management in the region mostly relies on mechanical and chemical control. The application and selection of control methods depends on knowledge of species (broad leaved, narrow leaved) life cycles (seed germination period ) and growth habitats (annual, biannual, perannual). Meaanwhile effective chemical weed control can only be achieved by correct timing the application to the right target while mechanism of action of herbicides varies among species. The aim of this study was to determine cureent weed species coinfesting wine-growing areas in northeastern Thrace Region of Turkey. The research area covered more than 70.000 ha vineyard area.

II.
MATERIAL AND METHOD To determine weed species field observations were carried out in randomly selected 93 vineyards varying in size of 5 to 25 da. Species was recorded in each vineyard and density was evaluated by counting plants or shoots of weeds at 1 m 2 frame. Frequency of occurrence (f%) of species was calculated as the number of vineyards where the species was recorded divided by the total number of vineyards visited. Furthermore herbarium of each plant were prepared by slow drying in air flow incubator at 30°C and were deposited in Tekirdag Viticulture Research Institute. Plants were identified by using various keys [12] III. RESULTS Based on our taxonomic identifications weed flora of Thrace Region was mostly composed of dicotyledons with % 69. The rest were monocotyledons with 31%. A total of 68 species of weeds belonging to 31 families were recorded ( taxonomic identification of families and species are given in Table 2 in alphabetical order.      The life forms of weeds in vineyards mostly composed of therophytes (71 %), followed by hemicryptophytes (22 %) and geophytes (7%) (Fig. 7).

Fig.8: Occurance rate of some weed species in vineyards
The highest number of plants on raw were counted as 20 for Hordeum vulgare L., 20 for Euphorbia helioscopia L., 33 for Agropyron repens L., 25 for Chenopodium album L., 26 for Lactuca serriola L.

Capsella-bursa pastoris
Virus-7 (GLRaV-7) is transmitted from one host to another by C. reflexa and C. europea [15]. Cuscuta spp. which only identified in 2 vineyards were not common in vineyards.
Recent flora of vineyards in the north eastern Turkey were not known. Due to agricultural practices many weed species may disperse to new area. On the other hand removed and newly established vineyards can alter the existing flora.
V. CONCLUSIONS In this study we tried to evaluate the current weed status of local vineyards as well as the density of most important species, and distributions. Several perannual and annual weed species were identified in vineyards of north eastern part of Turkey. Most of the weeds were dicotyledonous. Sorghum halepense was a serious treat to young vinegrowth that needs to be controlled chemically of mechanically.