ABSTRACT
There are over 250,000 plant species in the wor ld . Of these, about 250 have become prominent weeds in agricultural and non-agricultural systems. They cause enormous loss and suffering to human beings by way of reduction in crop quality and quantity, wastage of human energy and resources and increased expenditure to alleviate the problems caused by them. Many of them are persistent, pernicious, obnoxious and hard-to-control. In this chapter are discussed 40 of the more prominent weeds infesting the cropped land and causing enormous loss to wor ld economy. There may be other weed species of greater prominence, but they have to be left out due to limitation of space. Weed species predominant in an aquatic system are dealt w i t h separately in Chapter 17.
