 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.