Junipers Garnished with Tangerine Tentacles and Orange Goo.
Our wet weather this spring has triggered spectacular spore production by three types of rust fungi on junipers in southwest Ohio. All three fungi belong to the genus Gymnosporangium and each must alternate between a member of the plant genus Juniperus and members of the rose family (Rosaceae) in order to complete their life cycle. The requirement to cycle between two types of widely divergent host plants coupled with the rusty color of their spores earns these fungi the collective moniker of "heteroecious" rusts.
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