| Curse you
Mr. Paterson
As I write this, we've heard that in the last month, 26 horses in the ACT
region have died from eating Paterson's Curse. A
declared noxious weed Paterson's Curse (Echium
plantagineum) is in the family Boraginaceae
that includes some useful herbs and garden plants such
as Borage, and other toxic weeds such as yellow burr
weed (Amsinckia spp.), viper's bugloss (E.
vulgare) and common heliotrope (Heliotropium
europaeum). There are also some varietal changes
in Echium and the large photo at the top taken
in South Australia a few weeks ago, is probably one of
them.
The reason the horses have died now, when the weed has
always been around, is due to
the spring rains after a long drought and the
bushfires. The pasture
grasses in
the paddocks around the ACT have not responded quickly
enough to smother the Paterson's Curse. Just as
probable a reason was the hay that came from
interstate and was fed in the drought was full of
Patersons Curse and weed
seeds. Instead of the horses eating it diluted as part of
other feed, it's been the major part of their diet in
some paddocks.
The plant
contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are toxic to
livestock, particularly horses, though sheep can graze
it for a time. Still, prolonged grazing of Paterson's
curse is harmful even to sheep as the alkaloids
eventually cause liver damage, especially if stock
consume large amounts of this weed in winter and
spring and then graze on common heliotrope over
summer.
The plant has been found listed in English mail order
seed catalogs in the 1840s. This is probably how it
was introduced into Australia.
"The earliest record of
Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum) in Australia
was at the Camden gardens of John Macarthur near
Sydney in 1843 where it had been introduced as as
ornamental. Subsequently it appeared in nursery
catalogues. Paterson's curse, also known as Salvation
Jane, was first noted as a serious weed in 1889 at
Gladstone near Port Pirie, South Australia, and at
Cumberoona near Albury in NSW in 1890. By 1900, it had
been recorded from many areas and was well established
as a weed throughout south-eastern Australia."
Weedscrc
It is common belief is that it is named after the
Paterson family who lived at
Cumberoona, NSW near Albury. When I was growing
up, just a bit further up the Murray river I can
remember seeing the plants slashed and fed to sheep in
drought times. Its use as an emergency fodder gave it the
'Salvation Jane'
alternative name.
Until I started investigating, I didn't know there was
more than one variety of the prickly purple-flowered
plant.
How do you tell
the difference between Vipers Bugloss and
Paterson's Curse?
"Both are annual or biennial herbs to about 1m high,
which start out as a rosette, elongating to a vertical
flowering stem. Paterson’s curse stems are more likely
to be widely branching, and viper’s bugloss
single-stemmed, but both species may adopt either
habit. The blue-purple flowers are large and showy.
Viper’s bugloss can be distinguished by the coarse
prickly hairs, which make it painful to handle, and
the much narrower leaves in the rosette stage. The
stem leaves (as opposed to the basal rosette leaves)
are heart-shaped at the base in Paterson’s curse, but
not in viper’s bugloss.
Paterson’s curse is toxic to pigs and horses,
and the hairs of both plants may irritate cow’s udders. Sheep
are more resistant but over a number of years they
develop liver damage, which may cause death after
sudden stress on the liver as from pregnancy or intake
of lush feed."
Eurobodalla Shire notes
Is it all bad news? No, it's an attractive plant, very
pretty in large fields and along road edges. And it has other
attributes than just killing
off stock. Patterson's Curse is one of
the top ten native plants for bee keepers and makes an
excellent honey. It's estimated to cost agriculture
millions of dollars a year as a noxious weed, and yet to be worth
hundreds of thousands to
bee keepers. It's been called the single best protein
source for honey in New South Wales. The Salvation Jane name is much easier to
sell then Paterson's Curse Honey although Vipers
Bugloss honey is available widely in New Zealand.
Then there's the herbal benefits. Mrs. Grieve in her
Modern Herbal (1920's) quotes the ancient's on
Vipers Bugloss and even if they were mistaken
about the remedy for snake bite (which came from using the
Doctrine of
Signatures approach that if it looks like it, it must
have an effect on it.)
In a recent
Sydney Morning Herald, in their
Science
section (6/11/2003), Basil Roufogalis, Professor of
Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Sydney
pointed out that the oil from the Patterson's Curse seed has "a high
ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acids, similar to
that of fish oil. It also has a very high content of
an important essential oil called stearidonic acid.
The advantage of obtaining a fish-oil-like material
from a seed rather than the sea, is obvious from a
conservation point of view but it would also be
expected to be free of pollutants such as mercury that
are sometimes found in fatty fish". The omega 3
acid is
polyunsaturated and provides protection against heart
attacks by lowering blood cholesterol but there's
another use in cosmetics that is attracting interest.
Applied to the skin the oil reduces wrinkles.
A curse Mr. Patterson or a salvation Miss Jane? I can
hear the harvesters rumbling down the road now.
Marginal land, bees come first, then an oil seed harvest. Can
someone please move the bloody horses?
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What horses eat is a scintillating daily topic at our place.
Daughter Kate currently has three horses and we get to feed them when
she's busy (and take their rugs off or put them on in the
dark. Aren't we lucky?).
She's selling one, if you'd like to buy it...see
the details here.... please!
The West Australian Department of
Agriculture has the
best fact sheet
The CSIRO have a list of
biological controls
Waite campus at Adelaide Uni have the Weed
Management CRC. A good
links page to more information.
Why Vipers? What's a Bugloss?
Bugloss is apparently derived from Bull's tongue and referes to the shape
of the leaves. Viper refers to the spotted body of the
stalk, or the shape of the seed (it's angular and a long
snakey 'tongue'). Take your pick.
Americans know it as
Blueweed
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