) Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as
wheat and was a serious
weed of cultivation, a
Vavilovian mimic of wheat, until modern sorting machinery enabled darnel seeds to be separated efficiently from seed wheat. The similarity between these two plants is so great that in some regions, darnel is called "
false wheat". It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. The spikes of
L. temulentum are more slender than those of wheat. The spikelets are oriented edgeways to the
rachis and have only a single
glume, while those of wheat are oriented with the flat side to the rachis and have two glumes. Wheat will appear brown when ripe, whereas darnel is black. Darnel can be infected by an
endophytic fungus of the genus
Neotyphodium and the endophyte-produced, insecticidal
loline alkaloids were first isolated from this plant. The French word for darnel is
ivraie (from Latin
ebriacus, intoxicated), which expresses the drunken nausea from eating the infected plant, which can be fatal. The French name echoes the scientific name, Latin
temulentus "drunk." ==Literary references==