Here's this morning's finds from my garden in West Sussex.
An aging patch of garden bluebells provided my first find...
... the distinctive, elliptically arranged pustules of Bluebell Rust Uromyces muscari.
Tucked away at the back of the garden, a self-seeded tutsan (Hypericum sp.) was showing telltale yellow spots on a few of its lower leaves.
Tutsan Rust Melampsora hypericorum seems a likely identity for this one. I recall I found something like this before at Rowland Wood, here.
I think I've got something similar on the Petty Spurge Euphorbia peplus that grows in the cracks on the patio: Melampsora euphorbiae. I've recorded this in the garden before, here.
Then the plant identification gets a bit challenging... The tiny white flowers on this plant have six stamens and I think it might be Wavy Bittercress Cardamine flexuosa.
Whatever it is, it's got some impressive white blisters on its leaves.
Looking in 'Microfungi on Land Plants' by Ellis & Ellis, I'm thinking this must be the 'white rust' Albugo candida. But it's not a fungus! It's an oomycete. So I lose a point there.
Next up I've got some fuzzy-looking spots on the underside of a cultivated primrose.
From the top, you can just make out some brown spots and the leaf is yellowing around them.
I'll be honest, I don't really have any idea what this is. Is this what downy mildews look like? Kinda fuzzy-looking?
I can see loads of what-I-assume-are fungal hyphae. But I don't think I'm anywhere close to an identification with this one.
I had a couple of things on some dead currant twigs.
There was this black, bristly looking thing. I thought it might be Chaetosphaerella phaeostroma, which I've come across before (description here). But all I'm seeing is black bristly stuff, and no fruit bodies which might help me confirm an identification. Hmm.
These tiny yellow specks looked like they must be something fungal.
They are miniscule cup funguses!
Finally, I've got this poroid resupinate fungus which was growing on the underside of a plank that was lying on the ground.
Hmm. I've been flicking through 'Fungi of Temperate Europe' and there are rather a lot of species that look a bit like this. Might give up on this one!
For the record
Date: 18 April 2020
Location: My garden, West Sussex
You might like to take a look in Ellis & Ellis for your Primula pathogen. I think there's at least one Ramularia species on this host (although it may be given as an Ovularia species - I don't have my book with me in lock-down). The white fluffy patches that appear to be composed of tufts (which are the conidiophores coming out of individual stomata) and the conidiophores you've photographed are consistant with the genus Ramularia.
ReplyDeleteThank you! As far as Ramularias go, Ellis & Ellis mentions Ramularia primulae which I thought didn't look quite like what I've got. However, Brian Douglas suggested I compare with Ramularia interstitialis and my collection does look very similar to the photos on Malcolm Storey's BioImages website: https://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/Ramularia_interstitialis.htm
DeleteI haven't knowing encountered any Ramularia species before, so this has been an interesting foray!
Sorry I'm coming up as an 'unknown' for some reason. It's Fay here, we met once at Kew. You may be able to find a Ramularia on nettle at the moment. I've found it this week. Look for angular dark spots on the top of the leaf with corresponding white patches beneath. I'm going to look at my primroses today.
ReplyDeleteHi Fay! Thanks for stopping by. Have had a quick look at my nettles but I must admit I spent most of today trying to figure out what's going on on my Pendulous Sedge. I'm thinking probably Puccinia caricina var. ribesii-pendulae and had a good ferret around in my currant bushes to see if I could find its alternate host, but no joy so far. Had another quick poke about in my primroses too - looking for signs of smut (Urocystis primulicola). But I'm thinking maybe you need to dissect the flowers to find it... cos it's properly tucked away in there, if it's there. Then I fell asleep on the sun lounger reading 'Plant Disease' by Ingram & Robertson (the Rusts chapter was gripping but I found it a bit hard to keep up with the water moulds). It's been a good day!
DeleteI appear to have the same Ramularia sp as you in my garden. Yellow spots on upper side of leaf, sinuous conidiophores and single-celled ellipsoid conidia = Ramularia interstitialis. Brief discussion of the two Ramularia species on Primula here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016606161630001X
ReplyDeleteNice work finding the Ramularia! I saw that paper. Lovely micrographs. But I felt like I needed more of a Janet & John introduction to Ramularia! Struggling to get my head around the concept of fungal anamorphs with no known associated teleomorph...
DeleteI don't actually read that kind of paper. I just turn to the species I think I might have and read the description(s) I need. CTRL+F is useful for looking for a host or a fungus name you are after. The Ramularia on nettle has a known teleomorph and you should be able to find both stages at this time of year: Mycosphaerella superflua.
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