27Rice false smut, caused by the ascomycete Ustilaginoidea virens, is a serious disease 28 of rice worldwide. Conidia are very important infectious propagules of U. virens, but 29 the ability of pathogenic isolates to produce conidia frequently decreases in culture, 30 which influences pathogenicity testing. Here, we developed tissue media with rice 31 leaves or panicles that stimulate conidiation of U. virens. Generally, rice leaf media 32 more effectively increased conidiation than panicle media, and certain non-filtered 33 tissue media were better than their filtered counterparts. Among the tested media, the 34 Indica rice leaf medium with 0.06 g/ml of Wanxian 98 leaf was most efficient for 35 inducing conidiation, and it was also usable for conidiation-defective isolates. 36 Although the conidia induced in rice tissue media were smaller, they were able to 37 germinate on potato sucrose agar medium and infect rice normally. This method 38 provides a foundation for the production of conidia in U. virens that will be widely 39 applied in the pathogenicity testing as well as in genetic analyses for false smut 40 resistance in rice cultivars. 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 52 Rice false smut (RFS), caused by the ascomycete Ustilaginoidea virens, has 53