Wheat and Barley Diseases

The fungal pathogens that attack wheat, barley and closely related small grain cereals across the growing season, from seedling and stem to the ripening head. Gathered here are the rust fungi (stem rust, leaf rust and stripe rust), the powdery mildew and septoria leaf blotch pathogens, Fusarium head blight and its component species, ergot, karnal bunt, take-all disease and cereal snow mold. These diseases share a cereal grain host and a long documented history of triggering famine-scale yield loss across wheat and barley growing regions, which is why plant pathology treats them as a working group distinct from the diseases of rice, maize and other cereal or field crop families.