Lac host species, Weeds in plantation
Established plantations of five important lac hosts viz. Butea monosperma (palas), Zizyphus mauritiana (ber), Schleichera oleosa (kusum), Flemingia macrophylla (bhalia) and Flemingia semialata, have been found predominated by grassy weeds (72.07%) of total accumulated weeds, followed by broadleaved weeds (23.17%) and sedges (4.76%). Important weed flora in these plantations consisted of Eleusine indica (L) Gaertn, Echinochloa spp (L.), Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers., Dactyloctenium aegyptium P.Beauv, Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop, Brachiaria remosa (L.) among grasses, Ageratum conyzoides L., Alternanthra sessilis (L.), Emilia sonchifolia and Spilanthes acmella among broadleaved weeds and Cyperus iria and C. rotundus among sedges. Among these weed species, Ageratum conyzoides (L), Brachiaria remosa (L) and Echinocloa spp. (L) were common in all the lac host plantations. The A. conyzoides was the most predominant weed species in numbers with relative frequency values, ranging between 24.0 to 64.2% in all plantations except in F. semialata (9.1%).