Sighting 4349393
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Identification history
| Unidentified | 7 Oct 2020 | StephH |
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Many of the fireweeds we're pulling out at present are covered in this orange rust. Some look quite ill, which is encouraging. I'm guessing it's a fungus or cryptogam of some kind.
11 comments
Pam
wrote:
10 Oct 2020
You are correct in that these 'orange' spots are a species of rust, which is a fungus. Good to see it attacking the fireweed and weakening the plants. One can only hope!! To have the species of rust identified you would most probably have to send a sample into the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, care of Dr. Ed Liew, however best contact him first on edward.liew@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au, maybe he might be able to help you identify it just from an image. If no luck there you could contact Jordan Bailey at Department of Primary Industry (DPI) at Orange at jordan.bailey@dpi.nsw.gov.au
All the best and please let me know if you have any luck.
All the best and please let me know if you have any luck.
StephH
wrote:
10 Oct 2020
Okay, thanks very much, Pam. I'll try them and see what happens. Will certainly let you know if I get a result.
JackieMiles
wrote:
10 Oct 2020
Hi Steph (and Pam), I just googled fireweed rust and found an Ag Dept brochure that mentions Puccinia lagenophorae as being the rust that affects fireweed (and also the closely related native S. pinnatifolius, which occurs over on the coast down here). So there's a pretty fair chance it is that I imagine. Lots of our fireweed plants have rust too, but I doubt it is going to reduce overall seed production by much. I'm still pulling them all out. I do hope the native groundcover is going to bounce back post-drought soon, so that the fireweed has less bare ground to colonise - don't know how much longer I can keep this amount of effort up!
StephH
wrote:
10 Oct 2020
Well done, Jackie. I had a go too and found a record on CNM: https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/3367748.
Sadly, I have to agree that it's not going to make a lot of difference to this year's mammoth crop of the weed. Lots of them have it but only a few look really sick. I spent most of today pulling that and other weeds and now my back is aching.
Sadly, I have to agree that it's not going to make a lot of difference to this year's mammoth crop of the weed. Lots of them have it but only a few look really sick. I spent most of today pulling that and other weeds and now my back is aching.
JackieMiles
wrote:
10 Oct 2020
CNM record was interesting, being actually on Lagenophora. I have Lagenophora stipitata here and I've never seen it afflicted, which makes me wonder if the rust on the fireweed could be something else. Or maybe I better keep an eye on my Lagenophora to see if they start succumbing too.
I did hear on the radio recently that a stem boring weevil is being tested for host specificity so maybe salvation is in sight! It'll be a while though. I think a biological control is our only hope.
I did hear on the radio recently that a stem boring weevil is being tested for host specificity so maybe salvation is in sight! It'll be a while though. I think a biological control is our only hope.
Pam
wrote:
11 Oct 2020
Great, thanks for that Jackie. Hope we get the rust up our way!!
It would still be good if a definite id could be made. It most probably wouldn't be too much trouble to get it done and surely for the agricultural and wider environmental interests it would be useful to know what species are where and how effective different species are at weakening the fireweed plants. Nice bit of team work for ALCW...good to see.
It would still be good if a definite id could be made. It most probably wouldn't be too much trouble to get it done and surely for the agricultural and wider environmental interests it would be useful to know what species are where and how effective different species are at weakening the fireweed plants. Nice bit of team work for ALCW...good to see.
StephH
wrote:
17 Oct 2020
Pam and Jackie, I emailed my photos to Ed Liew, whose out of office email sent me to Dr Matthew Laurence, whose reply said this: 'Looks interesting and is almost certainly a rust and, given the host, most likely in the genus Puccinia. Puccinia lagenophorae has been reported on Senecio Madagascariensis. However, if you required a definitive identification we would need to sequence and possibly run a phylogenetic analysis. See attached for information on this service.' The attached info says the sequencing etc costs over $200, sadly. A bit beyond my budget. So I'll try Jordan Bailey.
Pam
wrote:
18 Oct 2020
Thanks for the update. At least part of the story has been established. Great effort.
StephH
wrote:
19 Oct 2020
Jordan Bailey has asked for samples so I'll send him some. He thinks it's probably Puccinia lagenophora but there is research on hybridisation as some Australian specimens aren't identical (teliospore morphology). This article gives more info, apparently: https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=csiro:EP103770&dsid=DS5.
Pam
wrote:
20 Oct 2020
By the way Jordan is a 'she' and great value. You are doing some good work with this rust, thank you.
Sighting information
- 102 Abundance
- StephH Recorded by
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Unidentified Fungi StephH South Coast NatureMapr
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