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Corn smut

Corn smut
Ustilago maydis diploid teleospores 160X.png
Ustilago maydis diploid teleospores
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Ustilaginomycetes
Order: Ustilaginales
Genus: Ustilago
Species: U. maydis
Binomial name
Ustilago maydis
(Persoon) Roussel
Corn smut
Huitlacoche2.jpg
Huitlacoche
Common names huitlacoche (Mexico), blister smut of maize, boil smut of maize, common smut of maize
Causal agents Ustilago maydis
Hosts maize and teosinte
EPPO code USTIMA
Distribution Mexico

Corn smut is a plant disease caused by the pathogenic fungus Ustilago maydis that causes smut on maize and teosinte. The fungus forms galls on all above-ground parts of corn species, and is known in Mexico as the delicacy huitlacoche; it is eaten, usually as a filling, in quesadillas and other tortilla-based foods, and soups.

In Mexico, corn smut is known as huitlacoche (Spanish pronunciation: [(ɡ)witɬaˈkotʃe], sometimes spelled cuitlacoche). This word entered Spanish in Mexico from classical Nahuatl, though the Nahuatl words from which huitlacoche is derived is debated. In modern Nahuatl, the word for huitlacoche is cuitlacochin (Nahuatl pronunciation: [kʷit͡ɬɑˈkot͡ʃin]), and some sources deem cuitlacochi to be the classical form.

Some sources wrongly give the etymology as coming from the Nahuatl words cuitlatl [ˈkʷit͡ɬɑ] ("excrement" or "rear-end", actually meaning "excrescence") and cochi [ˈkot͡ʃt͡ɬi] (cochi = "to sleep"), thus giving a combined mismeaning of "sleeping/hibernating excrement", but actually meaning "sleeping excrescence", referring to the fact that the fungus grows in between the corns and impedes them from developing, thus they remain "sleeping".

A second group of sources deem the word to mean "raven's excrement". These sources appear to be combining the word cuitlacoche for "thrasher" with cuitla, meaning "excrement", actually meaning "excrescence". However, the avian meaning of cuitlacoche derives from the Nahuatl word "song" cuīcatl [ˈkʷiːkɑt͡ɬ], itself from the verb "to sing" cuīca [ˈkʷiːkɑ]. This root then clashes with this reconstruction's second claim that the segment cuitla- comes from cuitla ("excrement").


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