Puccinia kunmingensis Y. Gao, H. Gui & K.D. Hyde, 2025

Gao, Ying, Tibpromma, Saowaluck, Mckenzie, Eric H. C., Eungwanichayapant, Prapassorn D., Gautam, Ajay Kumar, Lu, Li, Jayawardena, Ruvishika S., Hyde, Kevin D., Xu, Jian-Chu & Gui, Heng, 2025, Two new species of Puccinia (Pucciniaceae, Pucciniales) from herbaceous plants in Yunnan Province, China, Phytotaxa 694 (1), pp. 25-45 : 35-38

Puccinia kunmingensis Y. Gao, H. Gui & K.D. Hyde , sp. nov. ( Fig. 2 )

Index Fungorum number: IF902825, Facesoffungi numbers: FoF16756

Etymology: kunmingensis refers to Kunming City, where the holotype was collected.

Holotype: HMAS 352285

Spermogonia and aecia: unknown. Uredinia on the subabaxial leaf surface, yellowish, powdery, scattered. Urediniospores 20–35 × 20–30 μm (x̄ = 29 × 24 μm, n = 30), subglobose or ovoid, 1-celled, pale brown; wall 1–2 μm (x̄ = 1.6 μm, n = 35) thick, echinulate. Telia scattered or in groups on abaxial surface, subepidermal in origin, brownish to brown, erupting, globose, compact. Teliospores 45–80 × 10–20 μm (x̄ = 63 × 17 μm, n = 35), borne singly on pedicels, 2-celled, not of slightly constricted at the septum, long-cylindrical to long-ellipsoidal, tapering towards apex, apex mostly narrowly rounded but sometimes conical or obliquely conical, golden brown to chestnut brown or yellow; wall 1–2.5 μm (x̄ = 1.7 μm, n = 40) thick at sides, 5–10 μm (x̄ = 7.3 μm, n = 35) thick at apex, chestnut brown at apex, paler basally, smooth-walled; pedicel up to 200 µm long, 2.5–7 μm (x̄ = 5 μm, n = 30) wide, persistent, colorless.

Material examined: CHINA, Yunnan Province, Kunming Botanical Garden , (25°8'19''N, 102°44'25''E), on a grass leaf ( Poaceae ), 27 May 2021, col. Li Lu, GY 44 A ( HMAS 352285 , holotype) ; ibid. GY44 B ( HKAS 126565 , isotype) .

Notes: Phylogeny of a concatenated LSU and ITS sequence dataset depicts Puccinia kunmingensis as a sister taxon of P. kusanoi with 95% ML and 1.00 PP statistical support ( Fig. 1 ). Puccinia kusanoi is a rust on some species of bamboo (subfamily Bambusoideae , Poaceae ) ( Hiratsuka et al. 1992). Shen et al. (2017) reported P. kusanoi infecting Yushan cane ( Yushania niitakayamensis ) and provided molecular data. Puccinia kunmingensis differs from P. kusanoi in 69/561 bp of ITS (12.3%, 22 gaps) and 22/861 bp of LSU (2.56%, 5 gaps). Morphologically, the urediniospores of P. kusanoi are similar to those of P. kunmingensis . However, the teliospores of P. kusanoi are narrower (av. 65.1 × 21.8 μm vs. 63 × 17 μm) ( Shen et al. 2017). Puccinia kunmingensis has a particularly long pedicel, up to 200 µm, a feature that it also shares with P. kusanoi ( Table 2). Therefore, based on the polyphasic approach recommended for species boundary delimitation ( Jayawardena et al. 2021, Maharachchikumbura et al. 2021), we introduce P. kunmingensis as a novel taxon.

Puccinia caricis-scaposae Gao, H. Gui & K.D. Hyde , sp. nov. ( Fig. 3 ) Index Fungorum number: IF902826, Facesoffungi numbers: FoF16757

Etymology: in reference to holotype occurring on Carex scaposa ( Cyperaceae )

Holotype: HMAS 352286

Spermogonia and aecia: unknown. Urediniospores 20–30 × 15–25 μm (x̄ = 27 × 20 μm, n = 20), subglobose to globose, colorless to pale yellow; wall 1–1.5 μm (x̄ = 1.2 μm, n = 20) thick, echinulate. Telia scattered or in group on the abaxial leaf surface, immersed or erumpent, yellow or brown, compact, corresponding lesions on the opposite leaf surface, circular with brown edges or diffused. Teliospores 40–50 × 10–20 μm (x̄ = 46.5 × 18 μm, n = 30), borne singly on pedicels, 2-celled, constricted at the septum, oblong to clavate with round to obtuse apex, attenuate toward base, colorless to pale yellow or yellow; wall 0.5–2 μm (x̄ = 1.3 μm, n = 35) thick at sides, 5–10 μm (x̄ = 7.7 μm, n = 35) thick at apex, yellow at apex, paler basally, apex mostly rounded but sometimes conical or obliquely conical, smooth-walled; pedicel up to 90 µm long, 3.3–8 μm (x̄ = 5.4 μm, n = 30) wide, colorless.

Material examined: CHINA, Yunnan Province, Kunming Botanical Garden, (25°8'19''N, 102°44'25''E), on leaves of Carex scaposa ( Cyperaceae ), 23 January 2022, Ying Gao, GY85 A ( HMAS 352286, holotype); ibid. GY85 B ( HKAS 126571, isotype).

Notes: Puccinia caricis-scaposae is introduced as a new species based on its distinct morphology and phylogenetic analysis of combined LSU and ITS datasets. Puccinia caricis-scaposae was a sister clade to four strains of P. caricis-smilacis with 83% ML and 0.99 BYPP bootstrap support ( Fig. 1 ). Puccinia caricis-milacis , which was described by Kasuya et al. (2022), produces uredinia and telia on Carex fibrillosa and spermogonia and aecia on Smilax china in Japan. The urediniospores of P. caricis-scaposae are smaller than those of P. caricis-smilacis (20–30 × 15–25 μm vs. 25–38 × 22–31 µm), but its teliospores tend to be larger (40–50 μm length vs. 29–57 μm length) ( Kasuya et al. 2022) ( Table 2). Many Puccinia species have been described on Carex species, particularly in Japan ( Hiratsuka et al. 1992) and China ( Tai 1979, Zhuang 1988, Ji et al. 2017a, 2019). It can be very difficult to separate them by morphological features. The LSU pairwise nucleotide comparison of P. caricis-scaposae and P. caricis-smilacis showed 48/860 bp differences (5.58%, 13 gaps). Therefore, based on the polyphasic approach recommended for species boundary delimitation ( Jayawardena et al. 2021, Maharachchikumbura et al. 2021), we introduce P. caricis-scaposae as a novel taxon.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogram generated from ML analysis based on the combined LSU and ITS of Puccinia species. Bootstrap support values for ML equal to or higher than 65% and BYPP equal to or greater than 0.90 are shown above the nodes. Type strains are in bold, and the new isolates are in red. The tree is rooted with Austropuccinia psidii (APG1 and PUCPY02).

FIGURE 2. Puccinia kunmingensis (HMAS 352285, holotype). a–b. Telia on the abaxial leaf surface. c. Uredinia produced on the subabaxial leaf surface. d–e. Teliospores. f. Teliospores and urediniospores. g. Urediniospores. Scale bars: d–g = 50 μm.

FIGURE 3. Puccinia caricis-scaposae (HMAS 352286, holotype). a–c. Telia. d. Longitudinal section of a telium. e–f, h. Teliospores. g. Urediniospore. Scale bars: d = 100 μm, e = 50 μm, f–g = 20 μm, h = 30 μm.