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Abstract

Sage (Salvia spp.) is a substantial medicinal and aromatic plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family distributed throughout the world. Weeds are important biotic constraint that cause significant herbal yield and quality losses in sage. The aim of this study has been to identify weed flora in sage fields of Türkiye. Surveys were carried out in a total of 105 sage fields corresponding to an area of about 38 hectares in the Mediterranean region. The surveys were conducted according to the systematic sampling method depending on the size of the fields. The collected data were analysed by means of quantitative measures such as frequency (%) and density (plant/m2). 90 different weed taxa including 77 dicotyledons and 13 monocotyledons were found at the end of the surveys. The first three families with the highest number of taxa were Asteraceae (14), Poaceae (13), and Fabaceae (9) respectively. The weed species with the highest frequency were Avena sterilis L. (83%), Convolvulus arvensis L. (62%) and Trifolium pratense L. (60%), respectively. The species with the highest plant density were Glebionis segetum (L.) Fourr. (27.2 plant/m2), Alopecurus myosuroides L. (13.0 plant/m2) and Anthemis arvensis L. (10.7 plant/m2). Life form analysis revealed dominance of therophytes, diversity indices showed higher species richness in S. officinalis fields (79 species) compared to S. fruticosa (47). Beta-diversity (NMDS, PERMANOVA) indicated significant differences in community composition between sage species. Redundancy analysis (RDA) further confirmed that weed distribution was significantly associated with environmental and edaphic factors such as altitude, soil organic carbon, texture, pH, and mean annual temperature and precipitation. This is the first study on weed vegetation in cultivated sage in Türkiye. The results could be useful for further research on weeds in medicinal and aromatic plans.

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