Bradford pear, Pyrus calleryana Decne., is well known as an ornamental plant for its flowers, leaf color in fall, and disease resistance, making it desirable as a street tree. In August and October of 2008, the aecial stage of Gymnosporangium sabinae (Dicks.) G. Winter was collected from leaves of P. calleryana in Farmington, MI (Oakland County). The one tree had foliage that was severely affected by the rust fungus. Using published descriptions of G. sabinae as the synonym of G. fuscum, type of the genus Gymnosporangium (1--4), the Michigan specimen was identified and confirmed by comparison with previously reported European and U.S. specimens (BPI 118736 and BPI 856578). The diagnostic characteristics of G. sabinae include: spermagonia epiphyllous; aecia hypophyllous, roestelioid, 3 to 6 mm high; peridium balanoid (acorn shaped), becoming elongated at maturity, pale yellow, sides opening with lateral slits but remaining attached at light brown, pointed apex; peridial cells elongated, 51 to 68 μm long, outer walls smooth, inner walls and side walls sparsely echinulate; aeciospores globose to broadly ellipsoid, somewhat angular, surface slightly coronate, 22 to 32 × 22 to 36 μm, walls orange, 3.5 to 5.5 μm thick. This species is distinguished from other species of Gymnosporangium on Pyrus by the balanoid (acorn-shaped) peridium and the late season maturation of the aecial stage (4). Telia and teliospores of G. sabinae are produced on the alternate host, various species of Juniperus sect. Sabinae, but were not observed in Michigan. The specimen from Michigan is deposited in the U.S. National Fungus Collections (BPI 878928). G. sabinae is widely distributed in Europe, extending to Asia and North Africa, but is rarely reported in North America. It was accidentally introduced into California in the aecial stage on P. communis L. and the telial stage on Juniperus chinensis L. (2), as well as introduced into Canada (British Columbia) (3,4). The only previous report of G. sabinae on P. calleryana is in Germany (1). G. sabinae is known to attack commercial pear and ornamental juniper plants in Europe, thus it seems important to prevent the further spread of this fungus in North America.
References: (1) U. Braun. Feddes Repert. Beih. 93:213, 1982. (2) G. Laundon. Mycotaxon 3:133, 1975. (3) A. H. McCain and D. Y. Rosenberg. Calif. Dep. Agric. Bull. 50:13, 1961. (4) J. A. Parmelee. Fungi Canadensis No. 43. Gymnosporangium fuscum, 1974.
