Uromycladium falcatarium

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***Uromycladium falcatarium*** (**falcataria gall rust fungus**) is a species of rust fungus in the genus *Uromycladium*. It was circumscribed by mycologists Doungsa-ard, McTaggart & Shivasin in 2015.

The species infects the Fabaceae tree *Falcataria moluccana* (= *Paraserianthes falcataria*) in south-east Asia.

## Taxonomy and host specificity

Falcataria gall rust fungus (*Uromycladium falcatarium*) is potentially specific to only one host plant, *Falcataria moluccana*. However, *U. falcatarium* is closely related to the acacia gall rust fungus *U. tepperianum*, which has almost 100 known hosts including plants from several tribes of Mimosoideae. Research suggests that *U. tepperianum* may comprise several unrecognized taxa with greater levels of host specificity. It is uncertain if previous reports of *Uromycladium* fungal infections reported on *F. moluccana* are from *U. tepperianum* or *U. falcatarium*. For example, laboratory studies that manually inoculated *F. moluccana* and *Acacia mangium* with *Uromycladium* fungal spores collected from *F. moluccana* in Yogyakarta, Indonesia were only infectious on the sengon leaves and spores did not penetrate the *A. mangium* leaves. The authors of this last study considered these spores to be from *U. tepperianum* but did not report how they determined the identity of the fungus used for their experiments.

## Distribution

*Uromycladium falcatarium* has been reported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Timor Leste primarily from areas where its host tree *F. moluccana* is cultivated for timber production. First reported in the Philippines in 1990 falcataria rust gall fungus disease spread to Sabah, Malaysia in 1992, and to Indonesia starting in 1997 on Seram island Maluku Province, Java in 2004 and Bali in 2006. In 1999 an epidemic outbreak in East Timor spread throughout the coffee-growing districts where *F. moluccana* is planted as shade trees for the coffee plants. It is predicted that this disease will continue to spread westward with the prevailing trade winds. Rust gall infested trees with similar symptoms have also been found from the native range of *F. moluccana* elsewhere in the Maluku Islands and New Guinea (including Papua New Guinea).

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Doungsa-ard, C., McTaggart, A.R., Geering, A.D.W., Dalisay, T.U., Ray, J. Shivas, R.G. 2015. *Uromycladium falcatarium* sp. nov., the cause of gall rust on *Paraserianthes falcataria* in south-east Asia. Australasian Plant Pathol. 44: 25–30. DOI 10.1007/s13313-014-0301-z
2. ↑ *Uromycladium tepperianum* on *Acacia* spp.". Invasive and Emerging Fungal Pathogens – Diagnostic Fact Sheets. United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
3. ↑ Morris MJ (1987) Biology of the Acacia gall rust, *Uromycladium tepperianum*. Plant Pathol 36:100–106
4. ↑ Widyastuti, S.M., Harjono, and Z.A. Surya. 2013. Initial infection of *Falcataria moluccana* leaves and *Acacia mangium* phyllodes by *Uromycladium tepperianum* fungi in a laboratory trial. JMHT (Jurnal Manajemen Hutan Tropika - Journal of Tropical Forest Management) 19(3): 187-193.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rahayu, S., S.S. Lee, N.A.A. Shukor. 2010. *Uromycladium tepperianum*, the gall rust fungus from *Falcataria moluccana* in Malaysia and Indondesia. Myoscience 51: 149-153.

## External links

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* *Uromycladium falcatarium* in Encyclopedia of Life

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