All the hosts of Colletotrichum are cultivated for their valuable edible products. Diseased plants can be collected from crop fields. Sugarcane is an important crop in U.P., Bihar, Punjab and parts of South India.
The common hosts for Cercospora are sugarbeet, tomato, potato, tobacco, ground nut and many others, listed above. Infection can be observed when these plants are well grown in the fields.
Various species of Alternaria can be collected on hosts mentioned above. A. solani can be gathered from potato fields, three or four weeks after the crop is sown.
Polyporus (Bracket fungi) are common on tree trunks or on wood in damp forests.
The Agaricus (mushroom) (vern. kukarmutta, saap ki chatri) is very common in humus soil, dung, rotten logs of wood and other similar decaying organic substances during the rainy season. Precaution. Stay away from beautifully coloured mushrooms for they are often poisonous.
Species of Puccinia are known as Rusts, because the infected parts look like rusted iron. Rusts are known from very ancient times, because of the enormous loss caused by them to the crop. In ancient Rome, cereal rust diseases were thought to be caused by two Gods, Robigus and Rohigo. To please these Gods, the ancient Romans used to annually celebrate a festival, Robigalia.
The fungus Ustilago parasitizes mostly the cultivated grasses as wheat, barley, oat, sugarcane, etc. grown in crop fields. Cynodon dactylon, another host, occurs wild in shades, also as a weed on boundaries of fields and is very common grass in lawns.
The fungal Morchella ascocarps can commonly be found in deciduous forests either in humus soil or on decaying wood, etc. In India, it is abundantly found in Kashmir and Kumaon hills. This is an edible fungus and is grown commercially.
Peziza are seen growing on dung and on decaying wood, in damp places in rainy season.
