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Bunt, or stinking
smut |
Causal organism - Ustilago nuda f.sp. tritici
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The disease is specific to wheat.
Loose smut is easily recognised at ear emergence as the each grain is usually
completely replaced by a mass of black fungal spores. 
Partly affected ears are sometimes seen. The spores are released as soon as
the ear emerges, leaving only the bare remains of the ear rachis
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Because the blackened ears are so very obvious in the crop at ear emergence
the disease appears to be very severe, even at very low incidence levels.
