A mysterious green unicellular desmid seen in cloud forests throughout New Zealand tag name "Gollum" - as in something the infamous, literary character Gollum would cough up.
A couple of obs of this strange organisim
Info as to where it can be found
Another obs
Myrtle Rust was confirmed on Raoul Island on Saturday 1 April 2017
If found DO NOT touch - Phone the MPI Hotline 0800 80 99 66 immediately
This is an exotic disease causing plant pathogen (a rust fungus) from South America.
What Can it Infect?
Myrtle rust only effects plants from the Myrtaceae plant family including some of our most iconic endemic plants - rata, pohutukawa, manuka, kanuka and ramarama - as well as exotic myrtles like feijoa, guava and eucalypts
Symptoms
The early stage is purple blotching, spotting and deformation / curl of leaves; the mature stage is bright yellow to orange (egg yolk coloured) pustule spore as seen below
What to Do if Spotted
DO NOT touch - you will become contaminated and need to de-contaminate. If you cannot move from the site without spreading contamination stay put (but put your safety first) and phone for someone to bring you the required equipment to decontaminate.
Phone the MPI Hotline 0800 80 99 66 immediately
Keep and eye out for the following and add any obs you find for these to this project. This way we will have one place to track it :)
Something not yet identified living on Kanono - coprosma grandfolia
Is this only in the Waitakere or throughout NZ and not noticed before?
Small pointed snail lurking on Sand Coprosma
Is this snail the casue of decline of sand coprosma?
Is this only in the real far north or throughout NZ and not noticed before?
I will update this as more things to look for are added.
