Pl. ustilagines. Bot. [Late L. ūstilāgo, app. a kind of thistle; in mod.L. applied to smut on account of its burned or blackened appearance: cf. next.] Smut on oats, barley, or other grain, etc.; also spec., a genus of parasitic fungi, typical of the N.O. Ustilagineæ (brand fungi).
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 471. Vstilago is a certayne disease, or infirmitie, that happeneth vnto … ebare eares, but especially vnto Otes. Ibid. This barren and vnfruitefull herbe is nowe called Vstilago, that is to say, Burned, or Blighted.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 130. I could find little ustilago in my oats. Ibid. The ustilago is common to the ears of grass as well as of corn.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), II. 118. Wheat which is … infested with albigo (mildew), ustilago (smut), and clavus (ergot or spur).
1857. M. J. Berkeley, Introd. Crypt. Bot., 323. Scarcely ever so much as to make them disagreeable objects like the Ustilagos.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1197/2. Ustilago, smut, a disease in which the natural tissue is replaced by black powder.
1895. M. C. Cooke, Study Fungi, xxi. 251. It was … customary to associate the Ustilagines with the Uredines.
