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A Study Of Sphacelotheca Occidentalis, Cause Of Kernel Smut Of Big Bluestem, Karen M. Snetselaar, Lois H. Tiffany

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Sphacelotheca occidentalis causes kernel smut disease of Andropogon gerardii, a prairie grass. The smut fungus is systemic, perennial, causes severe stunting, and sporulates in florets. Spores develop in gall-like sari composed of grass and fungal cells. Spores initiate in a meristematic area near the base of the sorus, and progressively more mature spores are found toward the sorus rip. The cylindrical sari have a central columella of host vascular tissue permeated by hyphae, sporogenous hyphae and developing teliospores that surround the columella, and a peridium of host and fungal cells. Sporogenous hyphae ramify in a gelatinous matrix that disappears as …