ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on diseases of Wheat - Triticum aestivum L, their symptoms, pathogen characters, epidemiology, and management. The diseases covered are orange brown (leaf) rust, yellow (stripe) rust, loose smut, flag smut, rough spored bunt, smooth spored bunt, dwarf bunt, karnal bunt, powdery mildew, leaf blight, pythium foot rot, pink snow mold, fusarium foot rot, tan spot, tundu, bacterial leaf streak and black chaff, and soil borne mosaic disease. Theophrastus reported that rust was more severe on cereals than legumes. Wheat rust pathogens belong to genus Puccinia, family Pucciniaceae, order Uredinales and class Basidiomycetes. The teliutospores are rarely produced, dark brown with 2-3 septa and are similar to those of yellow rust fungus. The report of a new bunt disease in wheat came from the region of Faizalabad in 1909. Karnal bunt was reported as a soil borne disease by Mitra, but now it is considered as an air borne disease.
