Gingko Rust

[Fungalpunk]

Been a while since I have posted on here so hello again to one and all. The trouble I am having lately is with this black growth on Gingko leaves – a ruddy puzzler indeed. The pictures attached show the fungus on the leaf and a dodgy picture of what I believe to be the spores. The spores measure up to a maximum of 13 * 6 microns. Any pointers would be hunky dory – cheers.

FP Dave

[Chris Yeates]

Hi Dave

probably early stage of Bartheletia paradoxa; that is the most frequently seen fungus on this host, though your fungus could possibly show an ascus of something like a Mycosphaerella. See http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2008/11/relict-fungus-on-relict-host.html” class=”bbcode_url”>http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2008/11/relict-fungus-on-relict-host.html. At this stage you probably won’t see much that is identifiable, there are other possibilities. Check later in the year . . .

Cheers

Chris

[Fungalpunk]

Thank Chris – as ever the font of sound advice – very much appreciated. The trees aren’t far away so I will duly keep tabs on what transpires.

FP Dave

[Synder]

I’m afraid my tree is infected as well. Is this fatal for the tree?

[Chris Yeates]

Synder wrote:

I’m afraid my tree is infected as well. Is this fatal for the tree?

Hello and welcome to UK Fungi.

How old is your tree? It’s survived this long hasn’t it?

Flippancy aside there’s absolutely no need to worry. There is a huge range of fungi which colonise leaves as they approach leaf-fall, or occur after the leaves have been shed. It’s in the tree’s interest that its leaves should rot away and recycle nutrients for its future growth.

It can seem surprising when familiar fungi like Diatrype disciformis start to appear on beech branches quite soon after they have fallen off the tree. The fungus has in this case been living endophytically (“ticking over” in the dead heart wood) for years only for its development to be triggered as the branch dies, thus starting the recycling process. In addition while the fungus is inside the tree’s tissues there can be other advantages for the tree – there’s a lot of work to be done to understand these relationships fully.

There are of course fungi which are very harmful to trees and other plants, this tends to be the small group which makes the headlines and can give fungi a bad name.

Without the fungi there would be no living planet Earth.

Chris

[Fay Newbery]

Fungalpunk wrote:

Been a while since I have posted on here so hello again to one and all. The trouble I am having lately is with this black growth on Gingko leaves – a ruddy puzzler indeed. The pictures attached show the fungus on the leaf and a dodgy picture of what I believe to be the spores. The spores measure up to a maximum of 13 * 6 microns. Any pointers would be hunky dory – cheers.

FP Dave

Hi, I’m new to the forum and found your post while I was exploring. The spores you have pictured are definitely not Bartheletia paradoxa. The dark resting spores for this species (sometimes termed teliospores) are single-celled. There is a clear septa in your cells. The dark cells of Bartheletia only appear after leaves have fallen in the autumn. I don’t know how long they remain intact on dead leaves. Each clump of spores looks like a little black mound on the back of the leaf. They are always placed on a brown leaf spot which is clearly seen while fallen leaves are still yellow. Have a look at https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/whiteknightsbiodiversity/2014/12/21/living-fossils-on-campus/ for an image of the spores.

[Fungalpunk]

Thank you for this – apologies as I have been missing in action for way too long. I appreciate your comment though – sincere thanks.

FP Dave

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