smut on corn
Smut is a tiny plant called a fungus. Many of these plants sometimes
grow on corn and make it rot and die.
Deadly enemies
Some deadly enemies of plants lurk in the green kingdom! They are tiny
plants called fungi, that look somewhat like cobwebs.
Not all kinds of fungi are deadly. Some live on things that are already
decaying, and some live with other plants in ways that are helpful. But
some fungi are plant killers. They fasten themselves to plants and use
them as food. The fungi grow and multiply, causing the other plants to
become slimy and rotten. These plant-killing fungi have nasty-sounding
names such as smut, blight, rust, and mildew.
Fungi can harm even the largest plants. Once, beautiful chestnut trees
grew everywhere in North America. Most of them are gone now. They were
killed by blight.
Can fungi cause trouble for people? They certainly can. In Ireland, in
the 1840’s, a blight attacked the potato crop. More than 750,000 people
starved to death, because potatoes were their chief food.
Most plants are helpless when fungi attack them. But people can help
plants fight fungi. Scientists have found chemicals that help keep
plants from being- attacked. They have also learned how to raise plants
that can’t be harmed by fungi. Scientists are still working to find
better ways to save plants from these deadly enemies.
