This document summarizes several diseases that affect wheat:
1. Wheat rusts caused by fungi including black stem rust, brown leaf rust, and yellow stripe rust which infect aerial parts of wheat and are spread by spores.
2. Loose smut caused by the fungus Ustilago nuda which infects grains and converts heads to black powder instead of grains.
3. Karnal bunt caused by the fungus Neovossia indica which partially infects grains, converting some to a black powdery mass.