Today spring started - and what will be in 2 month ....

[mollisia]

Hello,

hoping this is not too off topic, but at least Chris will forgive me I believe.

After three days over zero now and the first today with blue sky and shining sun it was highest time to make our first trip to a very special flowering site here in Jena. It is the probably richest site of Eranthis hiemalis in Central Europe. O.k., the plant is not native here, but the location is reported since the 18th century and the species is fully integrated in this valley here.
Although you can see it in every garden, such wide areas covered with it in a still winterly forest has something breath taking.

Here are some impressions (the fungus part comes after that, don't worry ):







my daughters first year were she can realize the nature (last year she was three month at that time)


Last year just in this stage or a bit earlier another four winter period with snow and ice came and the flowers were burried for at least 4 or 5 weeks. After that they came out of the snow as if it was one day only!

O.k., now the fungal part!
In literature you can read about a phytoparasite parasiting Eranthis hiemalis and which is very rare. It was not recorded in Germany up to 2006 or 2007. Of course this rich location of Eranthis always attracted not only lovers of plants, but also the students from the university here (Jena has 100.00 inhabitants, of which 22.000 are students!), but also phytopathologists searching for this parasite. The locations has been object to several studies and master theses about the flowering, the production and distribution of the seeds etc. So this is surely the best observed station of Eranthis in the whole world.
And never has anybody found this phytoparasite here - until my wife and me fell over it in 2008. Last year after the flowering was over (beginning of May) the whole area was infected with Urocystis eranthis and it is 100% sure that it never occured before. What made this species come up just this year and were does it come from? The garden Eranthis don't seem to get parasited by this phytopathogene, may be because the populations of Eranthis are too small in gardens. It was so strange to see that hugh amount of Urocystis in this vast area and to know at the same time, that it is the first time it occures here!

Here are some pictures of it, although they are quite unspectaculare ...







Don't anybody think please that I have much knowledge about phytoparasites. But when seeing brand fungi it is always good to collect them, because most of them are rare. And if one is able to identify the host then in many times you don't even need the microscope to determine the species (although it's always better to crosscheck). But without knowing the host things get hard ....

best regards,
Andreas

[solus]

Wow - that is some sight, all those Winter Aconites together. And your little girl looks so cute!

[FungiJohn]

Hi Andreas

Most interesting and I can't help but think that your reason of 'may be because the populations of Eranthis are too small in gardens' is very likely. I'll pass this on to my friend / Mycologist Ken Rowland, who I'm sure would like to comment further.

It is good to note that you involve the family in this fascinating subject too

John

[mollisia]

Originally Posted by FungiJohn

It is good to note that you involve the family in this fascinating subject too

Hi,

they don't have a chance to escape that, neither she nor her two brothers

After that long winter here (no day above zero since Dec. 22nd!) it's got to be outside again without those thick winter cloth!


And she is willingly helping me collect Mollisias on fallen sticks, as you see


Although you have to hurry to get it, because she seems to like to eat them down from the sticks ....


best regards,
Andreas

[Chris Yeates]

not unspectacular at all Andreas!

lovely stuff . . . not common in the UK though I suspect overlooked, see:

NBN Gateway: Urocystis eranthidis grid map

and note how half the UK records are from Yorkshire: that's because there has been a tradition of mycologists in the county studying plant parasites; I intend to draw the attention of WABbers (many of whom are good botanists) to the rusts and smuts as the season progresses, to offer them another mycological string to their bows!

I don't know about small populations in gardens being unlikely to become infected - in the UK the rust on bluebells Uromyces muscari seems much more virulent on the (sadly) introduced Spanish Bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica than on native H. non-scripta (you can usually find it on the latter in a good host population but only on a few scattered plants)

best wishes

Chris

[mollisia]

Hallo Chris,

thank you for the informations about the distribution in Britain. The situation in germany is nevertheless an other one I suppose, because it was never seen here, although there are some people looking for phytos. Think of Uwe Braun and the old mycologists like Sydow etc.

The observation that garden plants are not infected was ment only for Eranthis hiemalis. I know that there are rusts on Galanthus, Scilla and Leucojum in gardens. May be it not the Eranthis but smut fungi as a whole that deserve bigger populations of host plants?

best regards,
Andreas