Hot dry weather across the Prairies has created ideal conditions for the poisonous plant jimsonweed to thrive, said Saskatchewan’s weed specialist.
Jimsonweed, or devil’s trumpet, has been reported in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
“It’s ubiquitous across the Prairies,” said Clark Brenzil of Regina.
“If you look hard enough, you will find it everywhere.”
Farmers swathing canola or combining cereal crops started to notice the towering weed in their fields at the end of August.
Brenzil believes a combination of hot weather, poor crops and deferred spraying created conditions for the weed to thrive.
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The warm-season weed needs soil temperatures of more than 20 C to germinate. Many in-crop herbicide treatments were completed before the weed seeds germinated and a second herbicide application may have been deferred because of the poor crop, which allowed the weed to further grow.
“In most years it is not a problem. Generally it is a hot-condition-loving weed,” said Brenzil.
The weed has been reported in wheat, barley and canola.
Derrick Rozdeba, communications spokesperson for Bayer CropScience, said they are “stumped” by the discovery of the weed in canola fields.
“Now it’s an investigation of where this is coming from,” said Rozdeba, who encourages farmers to contact the company to help track down its origins.
Jeanette Gaultier, pesticide use specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said the weeds have been spotted in northwestern Manitoba, where it was also hot and dry.
The weed was first believed to have originated in seed, but Gaultier now believes environmental conditions this year are ideal for the plant to thrive.
“It could just be an environmental trigger,” said Gaultier.
“It can take advantage of less competitive or late season crops,” she said.
The problem could become an issue in corn and soybean crops, which are less competitive with weeds.
Mark Millang, agricultural fieldman with Camrose County, had three plants chopped and bagged in the back of his truck. Two were found in fields and the third was an ornamental variety, related to the weed, but not the same species. He was on the way to confirm two more weed sightings.
“We are doing as many field inspections as we can,” said Millang.
Laurie Lehoux, administrator with the Rural Municipality of Loon Lake said a resident brought in a plant for identification that had been growing in their flowerbed.
The plant had Lehoux stumped and she cut open the seedpod and tossed it in the garbage. Then she learned what she had in her office.
“Now I have to figure out what to do with it and not make a bigger mess,” she said.
Lehoux doesn’t know if the plant is the weed, Datura stramonium, or the ornamental plant, Datura inoxia.
“They didn’t purposefully put it in their flower bed, which makes me think it’s the weed,” she said.
Both the ornamental and weed are highly poisonous, said Brenzil.
Each year, there are reports of teenagers sent to hospital after ingesting parts of the plants, hoping for a hallucinogenic high.
The seeds contain the same atropine compound as insecticides, which shut down the nervous system.
Brenzil said seed growers should be concerned about finding the weed in their crop and should pull the plant before it goes to seed.
“I think it is a concern if it is contaminated in grain.”
The seed is slightly bigger than canola and can be cleaned with the right sieve.
Robyn Gerrard, business agronomist with Parkland Fertilizer in Wetaskiwin, said one of their clients found a few plants on the edge of the canola field and pulled it out.
“She got pretty sick and was sent to the hospital with anaphylaxis shock,” said Gerrard.
“It’s quite dangerous.”
