Rust fungus

Black Range, NSW

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Identification history

	Rust fungus	5 Jun 2025	Heinol
	Unverified	7 Oct 2020	StephH

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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.

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Location information

Coordinates 149.849448 -36.731376
Places Black Range, NSW

Sighting information

102 Abundance
7 Oct 2020 04:03 PM Recorded on
StephH Recorded by
Collections
StephH NatureMapr South Coast Other rusts, leaf spots, sooty moulds Fungal galls, other rusts, leaf spots, etc Fungi Rust fungus

Species information

Rust fungus Scientific name
Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 696.18m Recorded at altitude

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