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 & subsp. equi-trojani, 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 graminea, 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 perennial. The plants are disfigured.

synonyms

Aecidium elatinum Albertni & Schweinitz, 1805.

references

Bahçecioğlu & Kabaktepe (2012a), 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).