Melampsorella caryophyllacearum (de Candolle) Schröter, 1874

on Abies

gall

Induces witches’ brooms and localised strong swellings of the them. The witches’ brooms are leafless in the winter; in spring they bud a month early and get abnormally short, yellowish needles. Pink, short-cylindrical aecia at the underside of the needles in a row at either side of the midrib. Aeciospores relatively densely and relatively coarsely verrucose.

spermogonia, aecia

Pinaceae, monophagous

Abies alba, balsamea, cephalonica, concolor, lasiocarpa, nordmanniana, pinsapo, sacchalinense var. mayriana.

on Caryophyllaceae, Alsinoideae

Melampsorella caryophyllacearum: uredinium (cross section)

Cerastium arvense, from González-Fragoso (1925a): cross section through an uredinium

gall

uredinia and telia hypophyllous. Uredinia op to 0.4 mm, orange, covered by a flimsy peridium with a central pore; urediniospores with 2-3 about equatorial germination pores. Telia often extensive, discolouring the leaf; the spores are formed intracellularly in the epidermis.

uredinia, telia

Caryophyllaceae, oligophagous

Arenaria serpyllifolia; Cerastium alpinum, arcticum, arvense, cerastoides, fontanum & subsp. vulgare, glomeratum, latifolium, pumilum, semidecandrum, tomentosum; Moehringia trinervia; Myosoton aquaticum; Stellaria alsine, crassifolia, graminea, holostea, media, nemorum, palustris.

notes

In both host phases the mycelium is systemic and perennal. The plants are disfigured.

synonyms

Aecidium elatinum Albertni & Schweinitz, 1805.

references

Brandenburger (1985a: 15, 97), Buhr (1964b, 1965a), Dauphin & Aniotsbehere (1997a), Doppelbaur (1973a), Ellis & Ellis (1997a), Gäumann (1959a), Henderson (2000a, 2004a), Irimia (2010a), Klenke & Scholler (2015a), Kozłowska, Mułenko & Heluta (2015a), Mułenko & Kozłowska (2010a), Kruse (2014a, 2019a), Maier, Begerow, Weiß & Oberwinkler (2003a), Negrean (1996a), Poelt & Zwetko (1997a), Preece & Hick (1994a), Redfern & Shirley (2011a) Roskam (2009a, 2019a), Termorshuizen & Swertz (2011a), Tomasi (2003a), Vanderweyen & Fraiture (2007a), Wilson & Henderson (1966a), Woods, Stringer, Evans & Chater (2015a).