New Global Host List for Myrtle Rust pathogen
ANPC is proud that our website is the publication point for an updated Global Host List for the plant pathogen Austropuccinia psidii, the causative agent of Myrtle Rust disease, by Julia Soewarto and co-authors. The new Global Host List shows that the host range now stands at 480 nominate species (524 taxa when subspecies are counted separately, as they are in Australian conservation practice). This host range, and the rapid geographic spread of one strain of the pathogen, demonstrate that Myrtle Rust disease is now a major threatening process for the Myrtaceae family on a global scale. The new global host list is downloadable from https://www.anpc.asn.au/myrtle-rust/
For Australian users, be aware that some of the scientific names and ranks (species vs subspecies) on this list differ from current usage in Australia or in some States, as it is based on a master-list of taxa from RBG Kew in the UK (and similar discrepancies may apply to some New Zealand host species). A few undescribed but phrase-named species, fully accepted in Australia, are also omitted for the same reason (e.g. Lenwebbia sp. ‘Main Range’ and Lenwebbia sp. ‘Blackall Range’). This global list in current form also lacks within-Australia distributional information and some Australian conservation-status information. These details, for all except very recent Australian additions to the global list, can be found in Appendix 3 of ‘Myrtle Rust reviewed: the impacts of the invasive pathogen Austropuccinia psidii on the Australian environment’, current to May 2018, which is downloadable from the same web address.
