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The smuts are fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes (of the class Teliomycetae, subphylum Basidiomycota), that cause plant disease.

Smuts affect grasses, notably including cereal crops such as maize. They initially attack the plant's reproductive system, forming galls which darken and burst, releasing fungal spores which infect other plants nearby.

A smut infestation is controlled by removing and destroying the infected plants.

[edit] Sugar Cane Smut

Sugar Cane Smut or Culmicolous Smut is caused by the fungus Ustilago Scitaminea. The Smut 'whip' is a curved black structure which emerges from the leaf whorl. Sugarcane Smut causes significant losses to the economic value of a sugarcane crop. Sugar Cane smut which has recently been found in the most productive augar cane growing area in the world, The Australian Eastern Seaboard.

[edit] Corn Smut

Corn smut, which infects maize, is also sold as a food in Mexico, and Brazil, and was originally first eaten by the Aztecs.