Occurrence of Puccinia polysora Underwood in the Indian Ocean Area

Abstract

THE maize rust fungus Puccinia polysora was first described in 1897 by Underwood in Alabama on Tripsacum, a plant allied to maize; it was later also found on Erianthus, a species of grass related to the sugar-cane. In 1941, Cummins detected the fungus for the first time on maize in the United States, but a careful review of herbarium material collected earlier from different parts of the Continent and deposited as the common maize rust, P. sorghi Schw., brought out that many of the specimens had indeed been attacked by P. polysora.