JOURNAL OF AGRKMiAL RESEARCH 



Vol. XX Washington, D. C, October i, 1920 No. 1 



FUSARIUM-BUGHT (SCAB) OF WHEAT AND OTHER 



CEREALS l 



By Dimitr Atanasof? 

 Formerly Assistant in Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin ~- 

 INTRODUCTION 



The cereal crops — wheat, spelt, rye, and oats — and also some grasses 

 are subject to attack by a number of fungi belonging to the genus 

 Fusarium, of which the most common and most important is known, in 

 its ascigerous form, as Gibberella saubinetii (Mont.) Sacc. The organism 

 attacks each of the hosts named above in at least two different ways, 

 producing two distinct pathological conditions. The first condition 

 results from an attack on the root systems and the bases of the young 

 and later of the grown plants, occasionally causing partial or entire 

 wilting. The second condition results from an attack upon some of 

 the parts above ground. This may be a rotting of the nodes, found on 

 rye, wheat, and barley, or blighting of the heads of wheat, spelt, rye, 

 barley, and, less commonly, of oats and certain grasses. In all cases the 

 various attacks on the same host are independent of each other. A 

 wheat plant may be attacked underground or on the head only or on 

 both the roots and the head, and in some cases even on some of the 

 nodes; but in all cases these infections are quite independent. 



Up to the present time little attention has been given to these two 

 forms of attack by Fusarium, and they have commonly been considered 

 two different diseases caused by one or more unknown species of Fusarium. 



However, the results of the work reported here prove conclusively 

 that these two conditions are only two different phases of the same 

 problem. This is in accord with views previously held by Selby and 

 Manns (u), 2 Schaffnit (8), and Naumov (5). 



This report, which is of a preliminary nature, deals primarily with the 

 headblighting of wheat, spelt, rye, barley, and oats, as caused by 

 Gibberella saubinetii, comparatively little attention being given in this 

 paper to the rootrot caused by this organism. Nothing will be said 



•In cooperation with the Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 

 1 Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited," p. 31-32. 



Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XX, No. 1 



Washington, D. C Oct. 1, 1920 



u V Key No. Wis.-i8 



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