Alpine rose nude base
| Alpine rose nude base | ||||||||||||
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Alpine rose apple, a formation of the Alpine rose naked base |
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| Exobasidium rhododendri | ||||||||||||
| ( Fuckel ) CECramer |
The alpine rose naked basidia ( Exobasidium rhododendri ) is an endoparasitic fungus from the family of naked basidia relatives (Exobasidiaceae). It attacks all evergreen species of the genus Rhododendron , where it causes growths.
Symptoms and Biology
Infestation with Exobasidium rhododendri leads to gall-like hypertrophies, which are called alpine rose apples , also called earlobe disease or sap apples . These are initially yellowish-white, later red, fleshy growths that occur on the two Alpine rose species Rust-leaved Alpine Rose ( Rhododendron ferrugineum ) and Lashed Alpine Rose ( Rhododendron hirsutum ) as well as their hybrids and in many rhododendrons cultivated in gardens such as Rhododendron indicum .
The hyphae are intracellular . The elongated, broad basidia are located between the cells of the host plant. They carry two to three spurs on short sterigms . There are no paraphyses . As with all Exobasidiales, there is no fruiting body formation .
Exobasidium rhododendri should not be confused with Exobasidium horvathianum . This rarer fungus parasitizes on Rhododendron ponticum in the wild in the Black Sea area and is rarely found in gardens.
distribution
Like its host species, the Exobasidium rhododendri fungus occurs in the Alps , the Pyrenees and the Tatras in the Krummholz region of alpine and subalpine locations, rarely in deeper areas. For this reason, this fungus is found much less often in gardens on cultivated rhododendrons than in the mountains, where it parasitizes all over the rhododendrons at the corresponding altitude.
swell
- Alpine rose and mushroom at the University of Tübingen ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- More general information on Exobasidium with representation of the life cycle ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
- BioImages (UK) ( Memento of February 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )