Whip smut of sugarcane

Host name: Sugarcane-Saccharum officinarum
Pathogen name: Sporisorium scitamineum(formerly known as Ustilago scitaminea
Classification:
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class:Ustilaginomycetes
Order: Ustilaginales
Family: Ustilaginaceae
Genus: Sporisorium
Species: scitamineum
Characters:
-The disease is caused by a fungus called as Sporisorium scitamineum and causes heavy
losses in yield of cane and also affects the quality of the juice.
- As the disease causes smutted stalk of sugarcane which resembles a whip, it is known as "culmicolous" or whip smut of sugarcane.
-Symptoms of the disease include the emergence of a 'smut whip' from top of the affected plant.
-Peak whip growth occurs at 6th or 7th month.
-It is a curved pencil-thick growth of gray to black colour,covered by a silvery white membrane.
Reference:Common Core Botany by sri vikas publications.