An enormous and diverse patch of Phalaris arundinacea grows near where I live right now. Many of the new leaves near the top show red pigments at their margins. A few leaves caught my eye however, they had red/purple colors.

The uppermost leaves are where alkaloids are found in the largest concentration and at this time the alkaloid levels are at their highest in literature. The plants are a bit drought stressed as well.

There are visible patches of different phenotypes here, some are a bit taller, some have more purple in their inflorescence than others. Something looking like P. aquatica is in the area as well.

I chew on the leaves of the P. arundinacea, just the top two leaves. They are often sweet but these were salty. Go figure.

The image quality isn't ideal, the shade was a rather dark maroon.

and you think the color might indicate high dimitri levels?
I think this might not be the case. but i love those colors.
i would say the only way to find out is to extract and test.

The flavor of the material indicates more alkaloid than a lot of the surrounding plants but what the alkaloid is and how much there is... ? I've no idea. I suspect it is gramine the plants showing this coloring are so few I expect them to be homologous recessive.

I suspect the pigments employ a similar enzyme pathway to alkaloids.
I don't have any interest in attempting an extraction. I did collect a few lbs of seeds from what I expect is over 1000 plants in early summer but I don't want to sort through seedlings to find better clones.