Odd-looking plants turning up in Alberta canola fields this summer have perplexed experts.
A similar event last year was said to be the effect of a fastidious prokaryotic agent, or FPA.
“No one knows what this is,” said Jim Bessel, agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada.
A prokaryote is an organism that lacks a bound nucleus. Fastidious implies that it is fussy about where it goes.
The council included information about the plants in a crop report earlier this summer, mainly to find out how widespread the phenomenon is and if anyone has more information.
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Bessel’s telephone was ringing off the hook as people called in.
However, he said most of the complaints could be attributed to some type of herbicide injury.
The symptoms of FPA in canola and Group 2 herbicide injury can be confused, according to the council’s report. That’s because cotyledons and leaf tissue can be purple in both cases.
However, the odd-looking plants are also said to have callus-like tissue in the growing points, unusually large cotyledons or brittle, rubbery plant tissue. Those symptoms are not seen from herbicide injury.
FPA is showing up in fields with no history of Group 2 herbicide use, said the council. As well, it tends to turn up in small circular areas that gradually get larger, at the edges of fields, and in sheltered areas.
Last year, experts blamed a phytoplasma, or plant pathogen, spread by leafhoppers. This year, tests revealed no phytoplasma, so the cause is unknown. Bessel said the focus of investigation is in Alberta, where analysis will be done on plant tissues and soils.
