Puccinia polysora Underwood, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 24: 86 (1897)

Figure 9

Uredinia amphigenous, sparse, mostly elongated or oval, 2–3 mm long, subepidermal, erumpent. Urediniospores mostly ellipsoidal to oblong or globose, sometimes broadly ellipsoidal, rarely cylindrical, (23–)28–35(–38) × (18–)21–24(–29) µm (n = 120), brown to golden brown, echinulate, spines 1.5–2 µm long, wall 1–2 µm thick, with 2 or 3 equatorial germ pores. Paraphyses cylindrical, spatula-shaped, or slightly curved, rounded and sometimes thicker at the tip, (33–)40–52(–55) × (5–)6–9(–10) µm (n = 15, width measured in the middle of the paraphyses), hyaline, wall 1–2 µm thick. Telia not observed.

28S rDNA sequences from two specimens of P. polysora collected in Benin share 100% (897/901) sequence identity with a previously published sequence of P. polysora (GU058024, Dixon et al. 2010).

Specimens examined: — Uredinia on Zea mays: BENIN. Borgou: Parakou, Atagara, Songhaï center, elev. 372 m, 9°41’ N, 2°69’ E, 2 August 2017, A. Tabé, N.S. Yorou, M. Piepenbring, participants of Summer School 2017, TA401 (UNIPAR); Borgou: Tchaourou, Wari-Maro, elev. 302 m, 9°07’ N, 2°07’ E, 4 August 2017, A. Tabé, N.S. Yorou, M. Piepenbring, Y. Meswaet, participants of Summer School 2017, TA402 (UNIPAR), GenBank Acc. no. LSU: OL437034; Borgou: N’Dali, elev. 179 m, 9°51’ N, 2°44’ E, 25 August 2017, A. Tabé, Y. Meswaet, TA406 (UNIPAR); Borgou: Parakou, Nima, elev. 376 m, 9°20’ N, 2°36’ E, 10 October 2017, A. Tabé, TA410 (UNIPAR), GenBank acc. no. LSU: OL437035 .

Host and distribution in Benin: —Uredinia on Zea mays L. ( Poaceae), Central and Northern Benin.

Host species:—Primary host species: Tripsacum australe H.C. Cutler & E.S. Anderson, T. dactyloides L., T. laxum Nash, Tripsacum sp., Zea mays; Poaceae (Crouch & Szabo 2011, Hennen et al. 2005). Secondary host species: not known (Hennen et al. 2005).

Distribution: —Africa [Ivory Coast, Guinea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe (Riley 1956, Kranz 1964a, b, Peregrine & Siddiqi 1972, Yen 1976 a, Crouch & Szabo 2011), Benin (this study)], Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, Oceania, Southern America, Caribbean (Farr & Rossman 2021).

Comments: — Zea mays can be infected by three species of Pucciniales, common rust ( Puccinia sorghi Schwein.), southern rust ( P. polysora), and P. purpurea Cooke. The morphological characteristics of the uredinia and uredinial paraphyses of Benin material are identical with those reported for P. polysora from other countries (Huguenin 1959, Pavgi 1972, Hennen et al. 2005, Crouch & Szabo 2011, Ramirez-Cabral et al. 2017, Tsatsia & Jackson 2017). Puccinia polysora is reported for the first time for Benin.