AY Honors/Fungi/Rust infection
This article is about the fungus. For the corrosion process, see rust.
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Pucciniaceae
Melampsoraceae
Coleosporiaceae
Cronartiaceae
Phragmidiaceae
Pucciniastraceae
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Rusts are fungi of the order Uredinales. Many of these species are plant parasites. Some are superficially similar to the smuts, although their relation to each other is not clear. The taxonomy of Urediniomycota, as a whole, is in a state of flux.
Many of the rusts have two or more hosts (heteroecious) and up to five spore stages. Among them are Gymnosporangium, the juniper-apple and juniper-hawthorn rusts.
The group received its common name from the fact that some species have a reddish spore stage, which resembles the corrosion process known as rust.