Ergot "C. lutea" (on paspalum). "C. purpurea" most commonly affects outcrossing species such as rye (its most common host), as well as triticale, wheat, and barley. It affects oats only rarely. "C. purpurea" has at least three races or varieties, which differ in their host specificity: An ergot kernel, called a "sclerotium", develops when a spore of fungal species of the genus "Claviceps" infects a floret of flowering grass or cereal. The infection process mimics a pollen grain growing into an ovary during fertilization. Infection requires that the fungal spore have access to the stigma; consequently, plants infected by "Claviceps" are
Hilum (biology) such a mark, and can be used as a distinguishing characteristic of a seed or spore. Hilum (biology) In botany, a hilum (pronounced ) is a scar or mark left on a seed coat by the former attachment to the ovary wall or to the funiculus (which in turn attaches to the ovary wall). On a bean seed, the hilum is called the "eye". For some species of fungus, the hilum is the microscopic indentation left on a spore when it separates from the sterigma of the basidium. A hilum can also be a nucleus of a starch grain; the