Contribution to the Study of Weed Species in Raspberry Plantations in Serbia

Weeds in fruit plantations represent a specific and relatively heterogeneous category of plant community, where anthropogenic factor appears important in formation, growth, existence, and possibly disappearance of such agrophytocoenosis. Raspberry patches are intensive fruit plantations where, besides application of different pomotechnical measures and pesticides, the soil is cultivated as well. Use of agrotechnical measures in such patches often lead to creation of plant communities similar to weed communities of row crops. Western Serbia is the area with the biggest production of raspberries in the country, with Valjevo and Arilje-Ivanjica plantations being the leaders. In order to determine weed vegetation in raspberry patches, phytocenologic analyses were performed at three locations (Valjevska Kamenica, Arilje, and Aleksandrovac). After inventarisation and identification of taxa, each taxa was quantified (in terms of abundance and distribution) and main ecological characteristics of the analysed phytocoenosis were determined. The results revealed presence of the weed community Panico-Galinsogetum Tx. et Becker 1942 (alliance Polygono-Chenopodion Koch 1926. em. Sissing 1946; order Chenopodietalia albi Tx., Lohm. et Prsg. 1950; vegetation class Stellarietea mediae Tx., Lohm. et Prsg. 1950), typical of row crops and widely spread in the whole country and Europe as well.