New Disease Reports
New Disease Reports (2009) 20, 1.
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First report of Puccinia longicornis on Phyllostachys aurea in the UK

C.R. Lane 1*, A.V. Barnes 1, P.A. Beales 1, R. Whittaker 2 and A. Gaunt 3

*charles.lane@fera.gsi.gov.uk

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Accepted: 10 Sep 2009

In May 2007, leaves from the bamboo Phyllostachys aurea sampledfrom 150 plants in a garden centre in Southern England were submitted to the FERA (Food and Environment Research Agency) Plant Clinic for diagnosis due to the presence of a rust.These bamboo plants are expensive and can retail for in excess of £150 each, with total UK sales in excess of £100,000 per annum. Numerous pale cinnamon pustules were observed on the abaxial surface (Fig. 1) containing urediniospores and paraphyses typical of Puccinia longicornis (Cummins, 1971).Urediniospores were ovate to globose with short acute spines over the entire surface (Fig. 2).Equatorial germ pores were clearly observed.Uredinioparaphyses were cinnamon brown, aseptate, distinctly capitate and thin walled, thus helping to rule out P. phyllostachydis (septate paraphyses) and P. kusanoi (clavate to sub-capitate paraphyses).Material was compared to P. longicornis from leaves of another bamboo, Pseudosasa japonica, submitted from the same premise at the same time and found to be morphologically identical.Neither sample contained teliospores.

Cummins (1971) reported P. longicornis on a range of species of bamboo from China and Japan including Pseudosasa and Sasa but only as a possibility for Phyllostachys as a host.The USDA lists include records for P. longicornis on Phyllostachys bambusoides from Korea and an unnamed species of Phyllostachys from China and Korea (Farr et al., 2009) in addition to several other genera of bamboos but there is no specific mention of Phyllostachys aurea.In the UK, P. longicornis was found for the first time in 1977 on Arundinaria (Pseudosasa) japonica (Reid, 1978) and has been reported on Phyllostachys japonica and Sasa veitchii (Henderson, 2000) in the British Isles. This is the first report of Puccinia longicornis or any other rust on Phyllostachys aureain the UK.It caused significant leaf spotting leading to reduced quality and retail value of these expensive plants.

Figure1+
Figure 1: Rust pustules of Puccinia longicornis on Phyllostachys aurea
Figure 1: Rust pustules of Puccinia longicornis on Phyllostachys aurea
Figure2+
Figure 2: Scanning electron micrograph of (a) pustule and (b) urediniospores of Puccinia longicornis
Figure 2: Scanning electron micrograph of (a) pustule and (b) urediniospores of Puccinia longicornis

References

  1. Cummins GB, 1971. The rust fungi of cereals, grasses and bamboos. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
  2. Farr DF, Rossman AY, Palm ME, McCray EB, 2009. Fungal Databases, Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory, ARS, USDA. Retrieved June 2009 from http://nt.ars-grin.gov/fungaldatabases/
  3. Henderson DM, 2000. A checklist of the rust fungi of the British Isles. Kew, UK: British Mycological Society.
  4. Reid DA, 1978. Two bambusicolous rust fungi new to Britain. Transactions of the British Mycological Society70, 459-463.
This report was formally published in Plant Pathology

©2009 The Authors