Cronartium flaccidum produces uredinia and telia on Melampyrum nemorosum and on Finnish Vincetoxicum hirundinaria

• Published in: Forest Pathology
• Main Authors: Kaitera, J., Nuorteva, H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2003
• Subjects: Fennoscandia; Northern Finland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0329.2003.00321.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1439-0329.2003.00321.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1439-0329.2003.00321.x

Summary Uredinia and telia were produced on Melampyrum nemorosum through inoculations with Cronartium flaccidum aeciospores collected from northern Finland, proving that M. nemorosum serves as the telial host of C. flaccidum . Melampyrum nemorosum plants were either grown from seeds collected from several geographical provenances or transplanted from natural forest stands. They were inoculated with several geographical aeciospore sources of C. flaccidum in a greenhouse. Vincetoxicum hirundinaria , M. pratense and M. sylvaticum were used as positive controls. Detached leaves of Melampyrum spp. and V. hirundinaria were also inoculated but uredinia and telia formed only on V. hirundinaria . Most of the aeciospore sources from northern Finland produced abundant uredinia and telia both on M. nemorosum from two geographical locations and on V. hirundinaria in the greenhouse. Statistically significant differences were observed in the dimensions of artificially produced telia, teliospores and urediniospores among the tested alternate hosts and spore sources. The results suggest that M. nemorosum is susceptible to C. flaccidum and therefore may play a role in southern Fennoscandia as an alternate host but it has potentially a greater role in central and eastern Europe, where M. nemorosum occurs commonly.