Corn Crops and Diseases

Common smut or boil smut is a highly visible disease found in corn fields and in home-owner sweet corn gardens. The unsightly smut boils enlarge within days after infection of ears, tassels, stalks, or leaves. As the boils mature, the contents change into masses of black spores. Since no toxin is associated with this fungal disease, infected plants can be fed to livestock.

Just check it out this kind of diseases wherein if you peeled open an ear of sweet corn and found corn smut would you:

A) Be disappointed and throw the ear in the trash, or
B) Feel like you hit the jackpot and prepare for a special feast? Your answer probably depends on your culinary heritage and experiences.
Corn smut is a fairly common disease caused by the fungus Ustilago maydis. It's most common on sweet corn but can also occur in pop corn and field corn. Corn smut can infect various parts of the corn plant including stalks, leaves, and tassels, but it is most apparent when it infects the ears. The fungus infects developing corn kernels, causing the formation of galls which can grow to several inches in diameter. These galls have a silvery gray outer coating of corn tissue, so they look like inflated corn kernels. Inside the gall is a mass of black fungus. When the galls mature the outer layer dries and cracks open, releasing powdery black spores to spread by wind and rain splashing. Warm, wet weather promotes the development and spread of the fungus.
Before you throw out infected ears of sweet corn, consider that this corn fungus is a desirable delicacy in Mexican cuisine. Known as huitlacoche (wheat-la-KO-chay) or cuitlacoche, its smoky, mushroomy flavor was appreciated by the Aztecs and continues to be prized for use in soups, sauces, quesadillas, and other dishes. Huitlacoche is becoming more popular in the U.S. and sweet corn growers in several states now purposely inoculate some of their corn with the fungus for commercial harvesting of huitlacoche.