Daylily rust

(Click on an image below to see the captioned full-size version)
Figure 1		Figure 2		Figure 3		Figure 4		Figure 5		Figure 6

Scientific Name (of causal agent): Puccinia hemerocallidis
Common Name (of disease): Daylily rust

Known Hosts:
Daylily rust has been reported on numerous daylily varieties (Hemerocallis spp.).
Highly susceptible varieties include Pardon Me, Lemon Yellow, Pandora’s Box, Little Gypsy Vagabond, Karie Ann, Colonel Scarborough, Quannah, Ming Toy, Double Buttercup, Russian Rhapsody, Irish Ice, and Imperial Guard.

Patrinia, an ornamental plant, is the alternate host for this pathogen. To date no rust infections have been reported on Patrinia sp. in the United States.

Symptoms on daylilies:
	Initial symptoms of small, yellow spots and streaks on upper leaf surfaces.
	Rust first appears as small, watered-soaked spots on leaves which expand and a pustule forms at the center (Figure 1).
	The raised yellow-orange to rust-brown pustules on the underside of leaves can easily be seen with a small magnifying glass (Figure 2).
	The “tissue test” is useful in determining if the symptoms you see can be attributed to daylily rust. When a white tissue is run over the surface of pustules, one can see a stain left behind by the orange-yellow spores (Figure 3).
	Infections have been found on the leaves and scapes but not the tubers of the plant (Figure 4).

Similar disease symptoms or insect damage:
	Leaf streak disease (Aureobasidium microstictum) is a common and widespread disease of daylily in the U.S. (Figure 5) If you run a tissue along the leaf of a plant with leaf steak, no orange stain will result. Daylily leaf streak fact sheet from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/pathology/pathcirc/pp376.pdf
	Daylily Spring sickness. For more information visit http://web.ncf.ca/ah748/sstf.html (Figure 6)
	Aphid feeding damage may also be confused with the symptoms of daylily rust.
	Other substances on the leaf surface such as other plants seeds or pollen could be mistaken for daylily rust pustules.

Fact sheets and references:
Daylily rust information page
Excellent images of daylily rust and a lot of information on daylily rust
http://web.ncf.ca/ah748/sstf.html

University of Massachusetts Floriculture Pest Management Fact sheets: Daylily Rust
Information on symptoms, biology, life cycle, susceptible varieties, diagnosis, and treatment
http://www.umass.edu/umext/floriculture/fact_sheets/pest_management/daylily_rust.htm

Daylily rust fact sheet from Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/04-089.htm

Phytosanitary Alert System- North American Plant Protection Organization
Puccinia hemerocallidis: A rust fungus newly found on nursery daylilies in the U.S.
http://www.pestalert.org/Detail.CFM?recordID=43

American Hemerocallis Society. AHS Daylily Dictionary
A good overview of daylily rust
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_dictionary/daylily_rust.html

Cornell University Daylily Rust Fact Sheet
http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/FactSheets/daylily%20rust/daylilyrust.htm

Florida Department of Agriculture Pest Alert
http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/pathology/daylily-rust.html

last reviewed February 25, 2008