Help in identifying Myrtle rust

[sh0rty]

I have uploaded 2 photos of what I think is Myrtle Rust - whats the process to get someone to help me identify it? and what do I do about it?

[thebeachcomber]

Hi @sh0rty and welcome to the forum :)

The first thing to do is wait! (I’m quite impatient, especially when it comes to IDing things, so I can sympathise with you wanting to get things IDed ASAP)

You posted your observations less than an hour ago, so you need to give it a bit of time for people to see them. Things like birds, butterflies, etc will naturally get ID’ed quite quickly, but less charismatic/more esoteric groups such as many inverts or fungi often take longer.

If you really want something ID’ed, you can search for who the top identifiers are of that taxon in your area. So in this case, the top identifiers of myrtle rust in NZ are at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?locale=en&place_id=6803&preferred_place_id=6744&taxon_id=549208&view=identifiers
Once you see who the top identifiers are, you can tag them in your observation and ask if they’re able to help you. You do this just like any form of social media; type ‘@’ followed by their username in a comment on your observation, which would look something like this

Also as an aside, your two photos show the same leaf with the same rust from the same time; these should be combined into one observation (one sighting = one observation).

[jon_sullivan]

Thanks for deleting that extra photo. @thebeachcomber has already given a good answer. I see that fungi expert @cooperj has now provided an ID, and thankfully yours wasn’t myrtle rust.

I’ll add that if you’re confident that you’ve found a new-to-New Zealand pest, you can call the Biosecurity NZ hotline at 0800 80 99 66 for an immediate response. It’s too late for myrtle rust in NZ though, and so if you do find some, reporting it on iNaturalist NZ is a useful way for agencies to track its spread around the country and see what plants it’s infecting.