Photo and text used courtesy Clemson University
Cooperative Extension Service.

Damages roots and lower stalk by rotting the pithy tissues. Close observation of the rotted, black pith will reveal many tiny black bodies, which, when viewed from a distance, give the tissue a charcoal black look.

The disease causes lodging primarily and is sometimes more severe on corn growing in soil of low fertility. The fungus survives in the soil on old corn debris and the debris of many other crops that it attacks.