THE FIRST EVER FLORISTIC AND PHYTOSOCIOLOGACL STUDIES ON Cannabissativa L. IN THE FIELDS OF TIRAH-MAIDANDISTRICT KHYBER, PAKISTAN
THE FIRST EVER FLORISTIC AND PHYTOSOCIOLOGACL STUDIES ON Cannabissativa L. IN THE FIELDS OF TIRAH-MAIDANDISTRICT KHYBER, PAKISTAN
Farrukh Hussain1, Sajid Aziz1, Gul Hassan2, Khalid Aziz1 and Sapna Raisham1
ABSTRACT
Tirah-Maidan Valley, District Khyber is a remote botanically unexplored area of Pakistan. Recently access has been provided by law enforcing bodies for the visits of outsiders, which made possible this first preliminary piece of work on weeds of Cannabis sativaL. fields. Although, the cultivation of C. sativa is legally banned in Pakistan vide the Control of Narcotics Substance Act of 1997, yet it is a regular cash crop in Tirah-Maidan Valley. Cannabis sativa fields were analyzed in three localities: Kalona, Zangai and Kawarli during August 2019. Ten fields were analyzed using 10, 1m2quadrats in duplicate for the identification and determining phytosociological features. The study revealed 56 weed species distributed among 42 genera and 23 families in the area. Dryopteris fragrans was the only pterodophyte. There were 2 families, 6 genera and 9 species of monocots. Dicots had 35 genera, 46 species and 20 families. Based on the floristic and FIV data Poaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Cyperaceae, Papilionaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Lamiaceae emerged as the important families. The phytosociological data pointed out the dominance of annuals and therophytes (34 spp.),mesophyllous (50%) and leptophyllous& microohyllous (each 19.64%) species. Of the 8 types of leaves, simple entire leaves were dominant (67.86%).Three closely similar communities: Echinochloa-Salvia-Hypericum, Cynodon-Echinochloa-Eragrostis and Eragrostis-Echinochloa-Impatien swere established in the three sites. The Jaccord (82.14-90.01) and Motyka similarity (69.33- 76.40), IVCI and CMI (1.3-1.5) indices showed narrow differences among the communities and sites. Constancy value showed that 40 species were in class V and 14 species in class IV. Cynodon dactylon and Echinochloa crus-galli respectively scored IVCI of 43.3 and 42.75 among the component species. Interestingly male plant is respected as part of the crop till the pollination and fertilization of female flowers; and thereafter it is weeded out. There is need for extensively surveys and ecological analysis from more localities in the valley to get further information about the weed flora, their distribution, population size and possible losses due to these weeds. It is an established cash crop in the entire valley that can be respected for improving the socio-economic uplift of the area.
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