A rust host-parasite information system

–  Make field excursions and find the interesting things!

–  Use your database – so you have it – and check the possibilites!

–  Do the systematic footwork!

–  Correct and complete the database!

–  Ask the right questions!

The observation

The database

The application

Strange rusts on a
Cucurbit from Africa:

Puccinia or Uropyxis?

Checking the database:

• other Puccinias on Cucurbits
• other rust fungi on Cucurbits
• distribution and host spectra

• phytopathological data for rust fungi on an important group of cultivated plants
• new insights in the morhology and co-evolution of Puccinia spp.
• a reappraisal of germ pore characters in rust systematics
• biogeography of rust fungi: an unploughed field

Rust-fungus taxonomy and host-parasite interactions:

11 350 entries representing ca. 40-50% of rust fungi worldwide and ca. 90% of tropical rust fungi

Rust fungus herbarium specimens:

2 850 entries representing ca. 80% of own rust collection

Costa Rican rust fungi:

ca. 30% of the own collections determined and included in the herbarium database; the determined species include 4 taxa new for science

Character list of rust fungi:

a list of descriptive characters for rust fungi was designed