TARES (ζιζάνιον, G2429). Mentioned eight times in Matthew 13. Refers to a weed called darnel, which looks exactly like wheat in its young stages and, in fact, only the expert can distinguish some species of this darnel from the true wheat. Later on, the differences are remarkable. The farmer, however, cannot pull up the weed when it is almost fully grown without seriously damaging the true wheat plants which are growing alongside.

The darnel is an annual, Lolium temulentum, sometimes called the bearded darnel grass. It has far smaller seeds than wheat, and it is claimed that these seeds, when ground to flour, are poisonous, due perhaps to a particular fungus which develops in the seed itself. See Weeds.