Humans are susceptible to being contaminated with this poisonous fungus because ergot can grow on mushrooms, rye, wheat, and barley. These are products that humans ingest everyday. Ergot is the most notorious poison because it includes several species of ascomycete fungi with complex life cycles that parasitize the grains of various cultivated and wild grasses. Therefore, it is necessary to check for ergot contamination, especially if they are home-grown grains. The epidemic or spreading phase of the ergot fungus occurs at the same time the grasses are in flower.
Fungal spores infect the ovaries of the mature flower of the host plant.
The developed sclerotia finally falls to the ground to germinate in the summer at once or may wait until after the winter and germinate the following spring. While germinating, each sclerotia grows into a long stalk with globular fruit heads that may be formed from wind born to infect a new crop of grass flowers. The infection can occur by insects also. According to Fuller and McClintock, ergotism has caused so many occurrences in epidemic and the middle ages was known as St. Anthony's fire. Most of the alkaloids contain thirty to thirty-five carbon atoms, although some have a smaller number.