This is why I love the internets.
A week ago, my compadre Luigi blogged about an interesting study by scientists at IRRI. They used plant architecture as a proxy for disease susceptibility, specifically to Rhizoctonia solani, the fungus that causes sheath blight in rice. ((Bottom line; it works.)) Luigi illustrated the post with an IRRI photograph of sheath blight symptoms. He then drew the attention of all and sundry to the post, which is when the fun began.
Quick as winking, someone at IRRI pointed out:
“The photo is not at all about sheath blight, but it does not matter!”
They were informed that the photo had been tagged “sheathblight” ((You don’t suppose any of the others might not be sheath blight, do you?)) on IRRI’s photostream at flickr, which is where Luigi had found it. It could be changed.
“Yes,” said the person responsible for IRRI’s photos. “Tell us what it is and we can fix it.”
Back came the reply.
“I cannot tell you with any certainty what this is supposed to represent. What I am really sure is that this is not sheath blight.”
To which bystanders could only add “Photographs also in database hell?”
IRRI has done the right thing; the offending photo is not currently visible. Luckily we had downloaded it ourselves, rather than relying on its continued availability. And in case you were wondering, this is sheath blight.
I think … We got it from the American Phytopathological Society, and they surely know, right?