J. Bio. & Env. Sci. 2014 251 | Tiwari et al. RESEARCH PAPER OPEN ACCESS Plant diversity and distribution of weeds in winter season crops of agro-ecosystems in Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh Anushree Tiwari 1 , Pankaj K. Sahu 1 , Atul K. Shrivastava 2 , Moni Thomas 2 1 Department of Botany, Dr. C V Raman University, Bilaspur CG, India 2 Directorate of Research Services, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidhyalaya, Jabalpur M.P, India Article published on August 09, 2014 Key words: Diversity, Weeds, Agro ecosystem, Rabi crops. Abstract A field survey was conducted at five different sites in Bilaspur district Chhattisgarh, during winter season of 2011- 12 to identify the diversity and distribution of weed species growing in association with cultured crops and to determine their competitive ability against the infesting weeds. Present study deals with diversity and distribution of weeds in agriculture fields of Bilaspur district CG. The sixty nine species and 57 genera belonging to 22 families were identified. The total number of weeds in all five sites species varied from 24 to 32 and genera varied from 22 to 29. Out of 22 families of weeds identified Poaceae was dominant with 16 species, followed by Asteraceae (10 species), Fabaceae (7 species), Cyperaceae (6 species) and Amaranthaceae (5 species). On the basis of habit, 22.29% of the weeds were grass, 71.22% herbs and 8.69% sedge. The weeds were further classified into different categories based on their life span, habitat and nativity. * Corresponding Author: Pankaj K.Sahu  sahu.pankaj1@gmail.com Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES) ISSN: 2220-6663 (Print) 2222-3045 (Online) Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 251-259, 2014 http://www.innspub.net