Fungi
Sighting 4349393

Unidentified

Can you identify this sighting?

Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Unidentified at suppressed - suppressed
Request use of media

Identification history

Unidentified 7 Oct 2020 StephH

Identify this sighting

Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

User's notes

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.

9 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
StephH wrote:
   20 Oct 2020
Whoops, thanks Pam.

Please Login or Register to comment.

Sighting information

Record quality

  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
  • GPS evidence of location
  • Description
  • Additional attributes
805,190 sightings of 21,853 species from 13,636 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.