Floristic Composition of Weeds planted with Theobroma cacao L. A case study of Ago-Yeye, Supare and Oke – Igbo in Ondo North Senatorial District, Ondo State, Nigeria

The quest for more agricultural produce has constantly tried to modify the environment thereby threatening its integrity, food supply and the existence of other organisms which has enhanced inter and intra specific competition by plants leading to increased reduction in yield quantity or quality. To assess the inventory of weeds towards its adjoining areas, the present study reports the floristic survey of weeds planted with Theobroma cacao L. in Ago-Yeye, Supare and Oke-Igbo in Ondo North Senatorial District, Ondo State, Nigeria. Floral composition of the vegetation was investigated using a systematic sampling design in collecting vegetation data in Cocoa plantations. Forty (40) quadrats measuring 1m ×1m were randomly laid within each of the three different age groups of Theobroma cacao plantations at each location; young (<3years), mature (5-16 years) and old (>16 years). A total number of 92 plant species, belonging to 82 genera and 40 plant families were documented across the cocoa plantations. Of the three locations studied, Supare had 61 plant species, 51 genera and 32 families, Oke-Igbo had 70 plant species, 61 genera and 32 families while Ago-Yeye had 61 plant species, 54 genera and 27plant families. The families were distributed in different life forms. The three (3) most dominant plant families were Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae and Fabaceae with 11 and 6 plant species each, distributed in 11 and 6 genera each respectively. Broad leaved weeds such as Asystasia gagentica, Ageratum connyzoides, Chromolaenaodorata, Aspilia africana, Oplismenus burmannii, Sida acuta, Talinum triangulare, Xanthosomas agitifolia, Cnestis ferruginea and grasses such as Axonopus compressus were dominant in both young and old plantations. In comparison of the similarity among the cocoa plantations using the Jaccard system, 50 plant species were documented to be similar between Supare and Oke-Igbo plantations, 45 plant species were similar to both Ago-Yeye and Oke-Igbo plantations and 39 plant species similar to Supare and Ago-Yeye plantations. Supare and Oke-Igbo were more similar with Jaccard similarity index of 61.73% while Ago-Yeye and Oke-Igbo had similarity index of 52.33% followed by Supare and Ago-Yeye plantations with similarity index of 46.99%. The diversity of weed species in the three Cocoa plantations at different growth stage was generally high. This study suggest that the adjoining areas could deploy slashing and the use of little amount of eco-friendly chemicals as weed management control measures in the plantations.