The level of infection of the wheat field was pretty high, but most of the hyphae were underground, and only a few fungi had infected the wheat. And regardless of where they were, all the fungi were dormant. They spread their hyphae in the ground, settling in and gathering nutrients. It had multiplied inside the wheat leaves, but it did not show.0

But now, it was different. As the temperature dropped, they began to turn into spores. The fungi had to mix their spores and become diploids before winter came; simply put, the spores had to mate to mix their genes.0

Next, they would go into a long winter hibernation in the ground with new genes. The last chance to gather energy before then was now, when the ground was rich in nutrients from the many leaves and fruits that had fallen.0

The leaves of the wheat were golden brown, and the tips of the hyphae were peeking out of the ground. Now, the white spores began opening one by one. The wheat leaves would turn white from the remaining spore shells, and they would soon fade into a reddish color and begin to disease the plant. This fungus was named red mold because of this color.0

—Pshh…0

The...0