Reed canarygrass
General poisoning notes:
Reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) is cultivated and has also escaped across much of southern Canada. The plant grows well in poorly drained soils subject to prolonged flooding. The plant has caused animal performance lower than the nutritional composition of the plant suggests. Sheep in New Zealand exhibited Phalaris staggers, which includes distress, convulsions, and death. No cases of this have been reported in North America (Majak et al. 1979, Cheeke and Schull 1985).
Description
Perennial, rhizomatous; rhizomes extensively spreading. Culms reedlike, erect, leafy, 0.6–1.5 m tall, 6–8-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous, not inflated; leaf blades 10–35 cm × 10–18 mm, tapering to a fine apex; ligule 2–3 mm. Panicle contracted, linear-oblong in outline, lobed, interrupted, 8–15 cm; branches short, erect, densely spiculate. Spikelets oblong, laterally compressed, 4–6 mm; glumes narrowly lanceolate, glabrous or puberulous, pale green streaked darker green or purplish, keel scabrid, wingless or very narrowly winged upward, apex sharply acute; sterile lemmas equal, subulate, 1.5–1.8 mm, villous; fertile lemma broadly lanceolate, 3–4 mm, appressed-pubescent upward, shiny; palea boat-shaped, keels ciliolate. Anthers 2.5–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 28.
Nomenclature:
Scientific Name: Phalaris arundinacea L.
Vernacular name(s): reed canarygrass
Scientific family name: Gramineae
Vernacular family name: grass.
Phalaris arundinacea L.
Geographic Information
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan.
Toxic parts:
Leaves.
Notes on Toxic plant chemicals:
Several indole alkaloids are found in reed canarygrass, including hordenine, gramine and 5-methoxy-N-methyltryptamine. Other indole alkaloids were also found. In the interior of British Columbia the concentration of the latter two was found to increase towards the end of the growing season. Differences were also found in various cultivars. Cultural practices and environmental factors such as moisture stress may also increase the amount of alkaloids (Majak et al. 1979, Corcuera 1989).
Toxic plant chemicals:
Gramine, hordenine, 5Mmethyltryptamine.
Gramine
Animals/Human Poisoning:
Note: When an animal is listed without additional information, the literature (as of 1993) contained no detailed explanation.
Cattle
General symptoms of poisoning:
convulsions
death
incoordination
muscle spasms
weight gain, reduced
Notes on poisoning:
Sheep in New Zealand have developed Phalaris staggers. Symptoms include incoordination, stiff stilted gait, muscle spasms, convulsions, recumbency, and death. Similar symptoms have not been recorded in North America. Gross lesions are found in the nervous system, including gray to blue discoloration of the brain stem and yellow brown granules in the cytoplasm of nerve cells (Cheeke and Schull 1985).
Sheep
General symptoms of poisoning:
Coma.
