Bush for ID & gooey Juncus

[djeyewater]

Anyone know what type of bush this is? It's in our garden and seems to get covered in orange spores in Autumn and also lots of the leaves get galls on them (from parasitic wasps I presume)


We have some Juncus effusus 'Spiralis' growing by our pond, and after the rain yesterday I went to look at it this morning and the brown bits were all gooey, like they'd been dipped in honey or something. Does anyone know what would cause this?


Thanks

Dave

[aeshna5]

The bush is a sallow, Salix sp- these plants readily hybridise so wouldn't want to commit to a definitive ID. The orange you find is due to a fungus- a sallow rust.

[davidbr]

I'd say it was a pretty good bet for Goat Willow, Salix caprea - the orange galls/spores certainly remind me of that species, but as aeshna5 said the willows are a minefield of hybrids so it's very tough to be sure from a photo. Goat Willow is a pretty common native species, if that's what it proves to be.

If it's in your garden & you've got regular access to it, I'd suggest getting hold of one of the botanical keys (there were some at one point on the BSBI website, & Stace's Interactive Flora of the British Isles DVD tends to suit me well) and try to match it up from there. If you can keep going back to the plant to double-check, you should be OK.

[djeyewater]

Thanks for the replies, I just checked the BSBI website, and it does have a Botanical key, so I'll give that a try later and see if I can get a specific species ID.

Dave