Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae Schwein. 1822
Cedar apple rust, American apple rust
Cedar apple rust lives out part of its life on two different species of trees (making it a heteroecious parasite). Each of the trees, eastern redcedar and apple trees, must be fairly close together. (Sometimes the fungus inhabits quince or hawthorn instead of apple trees.)
Identification: This fungus transmutes itself through several stages of development. In the phase where it takes up residence in eastern red cedar, it produces uneven light brown sacs about an inch around. The sacs become rounder and resemble an oak gall. That is, until they begin pushing out orange columns, creating a structure that looks a little like a rusty World War II mine. The columns continue to exude, becoming a Medusa-like cluster of orange, slimy tentacles. The tentacles are actually “spore horns,” and they release spores that develop for a time and become airborne. Some of these land on apple trees, where they grow, coating the leaves with an orange-yellow blister-like “rust.” This in turn eventually releases more spores that infect new eastern red cedars, continuing the cycle. For a more detailed explanation, see Tom Volk’s description.
Spore horn stage of cedar apple rust. By Dr. Brendan Hodkinson. Chapel Hill, NC. 4/15/2010. 
Cedar apple rust does substantial damage to apple trees, and is considered an invasive species in some regions.
Cedar apple rust infecting an apple tree (Malus domesticus). Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, Bugwood.org. 
Edibility: Please tell me you’re kidding!
Online References:
On eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) · 10/5/2010 · Susan and Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland · ≈ 4 × 6″ (10 × 15 cm) 
On eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) · 4/3/2011 · Susan & Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland · ≈ 4½ × 3″ (11 × 7.9 cm) 
On eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) · 10/5/2010 · Susan and Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland · ≈ 6 × 4″ (15 × 10 cm) 
The rust is on eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), here covered with young male cones. · 4/4/2026 · A. J. McEachern Memorial Trail, Driftway Conservation Park, Scituate, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 6″ (22 × 16 cm) 
Front and back of an infested crabapple leaf. · 8/24/2021 · Tom and Susan’s, Highland Green, Topsham, Maine 
On eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) · 10/5/2010 · Susan and Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland · ≈ 5 × 3½″ (13 × 9.2 cm) 
On eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) · 4/11/2011 · Susan and Raimond’s, Phoenix, Maryland 
| Roughly 75 people in North America are poisoned each year by mushrooms, often from eating a poisonous species that resembles an edible species. Though deaths are rare, there is no cure short of a liver transplant for severe poisoning. Don’t eat any mushroom unless you are absolutely certain of its identity! Please don’t trust the identifications on this site. We aren’t mushroom experts and we haven’t focused on safely identifying edible species. |
Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
© FloraFinder.org. All rights reserved.
