Morphological and molecular identification of Melampsora idesiae on Idesia polycarpa in Korea

During extensive surveys of phytopathogenic fungi in Korea, rust-infected leaves of Idesia polycarpa were found and deposited in the Korea University Herbarium. Seven of these samples were examined, and the fungus was identified as Melampsora idesiae on the basis of morphological characteristics. Analyses of the large subunit (LSU) rDNA region of three samples confirmed their placement in the Melampsora clade. In this paper, we provide the detailed morphological features and LSU sequences of M. idesiae for the first time.