Uredo salicorniae will soon be renamed (with a new epithet) in Uromyces by McKenzie & Padamsee (in prep.), following discovery of the third (2015) collection bearing both urediniospores and teliospores.  Uromyces salicorniae (DC.) de Bary was described from Europe and is readily distinguished by urediniospores with fewer germ pores.

Uredo salicorniae is an endemic rust from New Zealand, with only 3 collections (1929, 1956, 2015) from 3 widely separated mainland locations. It’s obligate host is the widespread Sarcocornia quinqueflora subsp. quinqueflora. The rust has been actively searched for on this host over recent decades, resulting in the single 2015 new record.

New Zealand only. Known from 3 widely dispersed locations only:  the island Rangitoto near Auckland city (North Island) and 2 South Is. locations - a coastal salt meadow Lake Ellesmere, mid-Canterbury (1929), and Otago Peninsula near Dunedin (2015). The latter will be the holotype of the new name as the specimen bears urediniospores and teliospores.

The rust has been actively searched for on its host by E McKenzie during more than 30 years of collecting rust fungi

NB. The 3rd collection from 2015 (PDD 105326) has location “New Zealand Transverse Mercator (New Zealand Geodetic Datum 2000):  1421224 4921350; New Zealand Map Grid (New Zealand Geodetic Datum 2000):  2331022 5482977” - This is yet to be added to KML file

Known from only 3 locations, based on 3 collections (1929, 1956, 2015). Very rarely found despite long-term active searching in recent decades.

Obligately parasitic on a single host, Sarcocornia quinqueflora subsp. quinqueflora (formerly in the genus Salicornia) which is a succulent subshrub indigenous to New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Australia. The host is found throughout New Zealand in saltmarsh, on coastal rocks and cliffs (McKenzie & Padamsee, in prep.).

??  Obligate host is not considered to be under threat. Climate disruption? - if lifecycle vulnerable to temperature rise, but seem unlikely given latitude spread of 3 known collections. Negative human impacts at any of its 3 known locations could disrupt local population.

The fungus is designated “nationally critical” in the New Zealand Threat Classification System lists (Hitchmough 2002).

Continued collecting to attempt to better define its distribution. If additional fresh material is found, investigate if there are any sequence differences in material sourced from widely separated locations - cf. cryptic speciation.

none

Hitchmough, R. 2002: New Zealand Threat Classification System lists 2002. Threatened Species Occasional Publication 23. Wellington, Department of Conservation. 210 p.