Distributions of invasive weed Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) in the University campus Peshawar KPK

A very interesting survey was performed to measure the distribution of invasive Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus L.) weed in the University Campus, Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The University Campus comprised on; The University of Peshawar, Islamia College University, The University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan Forest Institute and the New Developmental Research Farm. In these selected areas Parthenium weed distribution was measured in particular the academic, residential and research farm. Moreover, the survey also investigated the impact of parthenium weed upon native weeds flora inside the University campus. A 1m² quadrat was used to collect the data. During the survey, a total of 32 weeds species were recorded belonging to 18 different families and 32 genera, the life cycle of 23 weeds were annual while 9 weeds have a perennial. The data were recorded on absolute density (%), relative density (%), absolute frequency (%), relative frequency (%) and importance values (%) of parthenium weed and others flora. The collected data show that parthenium weed was the most dominant species having 76.8 m^?2 plants density in the NDF and (32.0 m^?2) at Islamia College University. However, the highest frequency (100%) of Parthenium was observed for The University of Agriculture, while minimum (80%) occurred in the Agronomy field. A More, the relative frequency of Parthenium was maximum (25%) in Islamia College; whereas, it's minimum (12.9%) at Agronomy field. Finally, the Importance Value of Parthenium indicates the highest (45.98%) at Dairy Farm followed by (40.33%) at the Horticulture field's area. In short, the Parthenium weed becomes more problematic and replaces all the native flora in the non-crop area specially Dicanthium annulatum L. a native grass species on the ridges of the field being replaced by parthenium. Due to no proper management and high growth rate, nowadays it becomes like a superweed in the KPK and especially in Pakistan. So, the management of Parthenium weed requires the call attention from the Govt. policymaker and proper quarantine inspection to conserve the native flora and field crops to get maximum crop yield.