Weeds or wild plants?

Avena fatua

Avena fatua

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Wild oats

Avena fatua is one of the most aggressive arable weeds, it appears to have very few insect or bird species associated with it. Worldwide it remains one of the most 'successful' weeds and continues to be very common in arable fields. Historically it is one of the weed species that has been encouraged by the increasing dominance of autumn sown cereal cropping. Herbicides targeted at controlling the species were becoming increasingly successful, but because of the selection of biotypes resistant to many of these herbicides it is likely to become an increasing difficult problem to control. It does not appear to be associated with a large number of insect species nor does it provide food directly to farmland birds.

Competitivity (seedlings/m2)	5
Number of insect species recorded	5
Number of insect families	4
Relative direct importance to birds	0
Occurence	42% (roughly stable)

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