Totnes Fungi

[gary]

A rust on Dog's Mercury - Melampsora populnea
at the bottom of Fishchowter lane, Totnes .
Spotted when out early with the dog on my official bit of exercise!

Best wishes to everyone.

[gary]

Same place ,same dog walk .
Bluebell rust - Uromyces muscari

Had to look at quite a few leaves to find it - on English Bluebells at the top of Fishchowter Lane
I haven't seen it yet on the Spanish ones at the bottom of the lane nearer houses .

[gary]

Top of Fishchowter lane , another day another rust.

Puccinia umbilici on Pennywort -Umbilicus rupestris

[gary]

Back down the lane with Arum rust ,Puccinia sessilis .
The Arums are surrounded by Ramsons which has the same rust but I've not seen it so far.

[gary]

Same lane
Campion Anther Smut -Microbotryum lychnidis-dioicae - only seen on one small patch of red Campion (maybe more later)- picture not very good as flowers got squidged in my pocket on the way home, should have put them in the other pocket without the dog's ball
Finally found Puccinia sessilis on Allium ursinum , Ramsons but only one plant out of thousands (OK I probably looked at a hundred rather than thousands)
Plant named ursinum after bears as it is said that bears after hibernation would eat a lot of this plant to get the hibernated bowels moving again . "Cacatne ursus in sylvis" as the Romans say.
Also Mildew on new growth on my neighbour's hawthorn hedge in Magdalene Close - noticeable this year because of dry weather? - I think it's Podosphaera clandestina

[gary]

An exciting different walk yesterday to take the glass bottles etc to the bottle bank!.
Noticed Tutsan rust ( Melampsora hypericorum) on Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum)
Tutsan growing against the stone wall on the path that leads from Maudlin road down the side of Magdalene Close
Tutsan leaves traditionally dried in a Book and used as a book mark because they have a pleasant scent when dried -(according to Richard Mabey, a tang like fresh pipe tobacco or Christmas cake) Maybe I'll give it a go.
I always think that compared to Puccinia species, Melampsora species aren't making much of an effort.

[gary]

Back up Fishchowter Lane with a rust on bramble (Rubus fruticosus)
Not so sure about this one. My original thought was Phragmidium violaceum but after consultation it might be Phagmidium bulbosum, I need to check again.
More interesting in some ways are the small larvae that appear to be eating the rust spores- i'm told that they're the larvae of a Diptera species Mycodiplosis (Rust midges). I'd not seen them before but probably not looked close enough as they are fairly common but may be rust specific.
Also there may have been some name changes on other rusts that I need to look into.

[gary]

Closer to home

Parasola species probably plicatilis (used to be coprinus ) growing in peat free compost (from Plants Galore) with tomato and pepper plants.
AKA pleated inkcap or little Japanese umbrella
They don't last long especially in this dry weather.
Photos not really very good I'm afraid.

[gary]

Had another look at the bramble rust but the mycodiplosids have taken over !
Seen lots of mildew on Sycamore -probably Sawadaea sp. -dry weather?
Also a downy mildew (an oomycete not a fungus but looks like one!) on Welsh Poppy ,Meconopsis cambrica - probably Peronospora meconopsidis.
Also a fungal cartoon

cheers
Gary

[gary]

Came across this today on Valerian (growing on a wall on Maudlin road) and thought it might be fungal like Blackthorn Dotty
but it's not! It's a gall caused by a sap sucking hemipteran bug (sounds like a good insult) ,Trioza centranthi.
I haven't had a look inside yet.