We had an interesting and informative workshop on rusts and smuts on 7 May, with a brief description of their complicated lifecycles and an opportunity to look at a variety of specimens, including the smut on Cuckoo Pint / Lords & Ladies – Melanustilospora ari. This has been considered rare but with several recent finds, it may just have been overlooked. It causes black blotches on the leaves – but there are often black blotches on the leaves of this plant – but more tellingly it creates pustules on the undersurface of the leaf, see photo. So worth looking out for.
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