Smut.
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Smut
Smut, any of a group of parasitic fungi that cause the plant disease also known as smut. Smuts attack many flowering plants, including such cereal grasses as wheat, corn, barley, oats, and rye, often causing considerable economic loss. As a smut fungus grows, it produces slender hairlike projections, called hyphae, that form a network known as mycelium. It reproduces through spores that often appear as a sooty black mass. When a smut attacks a plant, it gradually destroys all the plant's tissues.
Common corn smut (Ustilago maydis) causes boils, or tumors on the rapidly growing parts of the corn plant, often on or near the ears. Corn smut can be controlled by destroying the boils before they release spores, by the development of smut-resistant varieties of corn, and by careful soil sanitation.
Among the smuts that commonly attack wheat are loose smut (U. tritici), which generally attacks at the time of flowering, and covered, or stinking, wheat smut (Tilletia foetida), which usually attacks as the seeds germinate or shortly thereafter, greatly stunting the growth of the wheat plant. Control measures include breeding resistant varieties and the use of chemicals.
Smut
Smut, any of a group of parasitic fungi that cause the plant disease also known as smut. Smuts attack many flowering plants, including such cereal grasses as wheat, corn, barley, oats, and rye, often causing considerable economic loss. As a smut fungus grows, it produces slender hairlike projections, called hyphae, that form a network known as mycelium. It reproduces through spores that often appear as a sooty black mass. When a smut attacks a plant, it gradually destroys all the plant's tissues.
Common corn smut (Ustilago maydis) causes boils, or tumors on the rapidly growing parts of the corn plant, often on or near the ears. Corn smut can be controlled by destroying the boils before they release spores, by the development of smut-resistant varieties of corn, and by careful soil sanitation.
Among the smuts that commonly attack wheat are loose smut (U. tritici), which generally attacks at the time of flowering, and covered, or stinking, wheat smut (Tilletia foetida), which usually attacks as the seeds germinate or shortly thereafter, greatly stunting the growth of the wheat plant. Control measures include breeding resistant varieties and the use of chemicals.