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Glite Dictionary
🍄 A plant fungus 🍄 A fungus genus
Ustilago

Ustilago

9.9
A group of fungi that make dark, dusty growth on cereal crops like wheat
  • proper noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : Ustilago
  • The corn fungus known as Ustilago maydis can significantly reduce crop yields if not controlled.
  • smut (Ustilago)
  • fungus Ustilago

Examples

  • The typical maize plant yields one healthy ear; others ripen only as nubbins or succumb to the maize fungus, Ustilago maydis.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Perhaps the most extreme case of this is the Mexican corn smut known to science as Ustilago maydis.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Farmers often struggle with Ustilago infections, leading to losses in their maize harvest.

  • Research on Ustilago species helps scientists find effective ways to combat smut diseases in agriculture.

Surface Forms

Ustilago main

Etymology

Ustilago goes back to Latin ustilago and the root ust- meaning 'to burn', a name given because the infections make dark, soot-like masses that look like burned spots on wheat and other cereals. That's why Ustilago now refers to the smut fungi that damage cereal plants.