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The aim of this study was to evaluate the herbage mass of Panicum maximum cv. Aruana and spontaneous species in an aruana grass pasture during the establishment phase. The trial was carried out in Tacima-PB, Brazil, in a 0.25 ha area with aruana grass. A randomised-block design with four blocks and four experimental periods was adopted, in which the treatments consisted of four harvest times (rainy, rainy/dry, dry and dry/rainy periods). Forty-seven spontaneous species were identified, belonging 36 genera and 21 families. The families with the largest number of species found were Fabaceae (9), Poaceae (5), Malvaceae (4). The herbage mass of aruana grass was lower in the rainy period of 2015 (199.61 kg/ha). The herbage mass of the spontaneous species was larger in the rainy/dry transition (2,512.66 kg/ha), followed by the rainy (1,505.47 kg/ha) and dry/rainy (1,051.32 kg/ha) periods, but decreased in the dry season (235.62 kg/ha). The family Fabaceae had high representativeness of individuals in the area, together with the families Poaceae and Malvaceae, in a P. maximum cv. Aruana pasture. Herissantia crispa and P. maximum cv. Aruana were the species with over 15% of presence in the area, which demonstrates their dominance therein. (C) 2018 Friends Science Publishers