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Glite Dictionary
🌾 Crop fungus 🧹 Dirty marks 🖤 To stain
smuts

smuts

8.9
A disease caused by a fungus that makes dark powdery spots on grain plants
  • noun
  • /smʌts/
  • Specialized
translation icon : tizón (hongo)
  • The wheat crop was severely damaged by smuts that spread quickly after the rainy season.

Examples

  • Farmers use resistant varieties to protect their fields from smuts and other fungal diseases.

  • Early detection of smuts can help prevent major losses in cereal production.

  • The farmer noticed smuts on his wheat plants.

  • Many cereal crops are vulnerable to smuts.

  • Farmers take precautions to reduce the impact of smuts that can ruin cereal yields.

  • The presence of smuts on the barley is a sign that fungal infection has occurred.

  • Research indicates that smuts can significantly affect the health of grasslands.

Synonyms

smut
vssmuts
  • Specialized
1 9.4

A plant disease that makes black powder on grain plants like wheat

is the plural form used for multiple infected plants or outbreaks

Surface Forms

smuts plural
smut singular

Morphology

smuts = smut (semi-transparent) = smut + s

The fungal meaning is related to 'smut' as dark/sooty matter (visible black spore masses), but the specialised agricultural disease sense is more technical than the everyday 'dirt' sense.

Etymology

Smuts comes from an old word smut meaning 'soot' or 'black dirt', because the fungus makes dark, powdery spores that look like soot on plants. So, smuts are fungal diseases that blacken and damage cereal crops.