An investigation to mycoflora associated with developing wheat grains

Abstract

An attempt was made to find out the fungi associated with developing wheat grains during grain development stage. A black point susceptible wheat variety 'Kanchan* was used in the experiment. Four samples were collected from soft dough to dead ripening stage at seven days interval. The florets were separated into lemma and kernel. Blotter method was employed to detect the fungal flora from the lemma and kernel. More than 11 species of fungi representing 10 genera were found to be associated with lemma and kernel. Among these seven fungi were considered as most prevalent. In order of prevalence these were Cladosporium cladosporioides, Epicoccum purpurascens. Alternaria tennis. Fusarium spp., Bipolaris sorokiniana, A. triticina and Curvularia lunata. The population of C. cladosporioides and Fusarium spp. decreased and those of other fungi increased gradually with the increase of the age of the grains.