An annotated list of Urediniomycetes ( rust fungi ) from South Africa 1 : Melampsoraceae and Pucciniaceae , excluding Piiccinia and Uromyces

Up-to-date information is given on the identity, occurrence, nomenclature, host ranges, geographical distribution and literature references of the Urediniomycetes in South Africa. Species o f the family Melampsoraceae and all species of the family Pucciniaceae other than those in the genera Puccinia Pers. and Uromyces (Link) Unger are listed. New species records since 1945 include the following: Melampsora allii-populirui Kleb.. Melampsora coleosporioides Dietel. Melampsora laricipopulina Kleb.. Melampsora medusae Thiim., Frommea obtusa-duchesneae (Arthur) Arthur. Hemileia gardeniae-thunbergiae Maubl. & Roger. Phakopsora gossypii (Arthur) Hirats. Uromycladium tepperianum (Sacc.) McAlpine and Tranzschelia discolor (Fuckel) Tranzschel & M.A. Litv. Although many species of rusts have already been recorded, these are thought to represent only a small percentage of the rust population in southern Africa. Furthermore, only a small portion of rust specimens at present housed at PREM have so far been studied. Continued research on this economically important group of fungi is therefore essential.


INTRODUCTION
The rust fungi (Urediniomycetes), being obligate plant parasites, constitute one of the most economically impor tant groups of fungi.The rusts in South Africa have been neglected for some time and our knowledge of the occur rence of rust fungi in this country is based largely on the publication by Doidge (1950).A few subsequent lists of plant diseases in South Africa (Doidge ei al. 1953: Gorter 1977, 1979. 1981. 1982) have provided additional infor mation on certain species.
As the records in the National Collection of Fungi rep resent mainly early collections up to 1945.catalogued by Doidge (1950).a significant number of new records of gen era and species an: to be expected.Furthermore, many of the recorded rusts and their hosts have undergone a change of name, and several new host records have been reported.The need for an up-to-date list is therefore evident.This publication is the first in a series of lists on the rust fungi recorded for South Africa.It deals with the fam ily Melampsoraceae and all genera of the family Puc-ciniaceae other than Puccinia Pers.and Uromyces (Link) Unger.These will be dealt with in separate papers, as will the form-genera Aecidium Pers.and Uredo Pers.The aim of the present publication is to combine all previous in formation in one list.Doidge (1950) included 17 species under the family Melampsoraceae.264 species under the Pucciniaceae and 143 species under the Imperfect rusts.In this paper nine new species records are added, seven species previously recorded from South Africa are ex cluded as they were based on specimens from outside the region covered by the present list, five species are placed in synonymy and one previously incorrectly identified species is correctly named.
The list covers two families: Melampsoraceae and Puc ciniaceae.Species are listed alphabetically.Each name (in bold type) is given with the relevant literature references, synonyms (in italics, preceded by =), correct host names (in italics) and reference to specimens in the National Col lection of Fungi (PREM) together with their localities.Information on the geographical distribution of all species in South Africa is summarised in Table 1.The geographi cal area referred to as South Africa in this publication includes the Republic of South Africa with the former Republics of Bophuthatsw ana.Ciskei.Transkei and Venda.An alphabetical list with hosts is included in Table 2.An alphabetical list of hosts (Table 3) is also added: the scientific names are the names listed b\ the National    Botanical Institute (Gibbs Russell et al. 1985, 1987, 1988;De Wet et al. 1990;Arnold & De Wet 1993).
All publications are listed in which references to rusts collected in South Africa have been traced.However, ref erences to the original descriptions of species first de scribed from other countries have been omitted.No attempt has been made to give a complete bibliography of literature on the South African rusts.Doidge (1927Doidge ( , 1950)); G.J.M.

TABLE 2 .
-Alphabetical list o f rusts with hosts (continued)