Species structure of artificial grasslands with Zoysia japonica STEUD in Pyongyang, North Korea

Abstract

AbstractIn Far East (mainly in Japan), considerable attention has been devoted to weeds of many types of seminatural and artificial vegetation. It allows us to compare the weed flora of artifical grasslands (seeded and planted) dominated by Zoysia japonica in Pyongyang (the capital of North Korea) with other similar communities.Some of the dominant or common species of the artificial monocoenoses with Z. japonica (Tables 1a, 1b, 2; Fig. 4) may be considered dangerous for field crops and seeded meadows. There are, especially, Kummerowia striata and Viola mandshurica. Of the rare species there are Oxalis corniculata, Equisetum arvense and Setaria viridis.Many weed species of the studied artificial grasslands also occur in intensive pastures with Zoysia japonica in Japan (Table 3). This similarity of both vegetation types is ascribed to a similar way of disturbance of vegetation and soil surface (grazing and trampling by livestock on the one hand and cutting and weeding on the other) and by the occurrence of the same dominant.Artificial grasslands in Pyongyang were classified as Zoysia japonica community. Four groups of phytosociological relevés were distinguished by using the ordination technique DCA and its comparison with BRAUN‐BLANQUET (Tables 1a, 1b, 2; Fig. 3).