Cedar Apple Rust on Juniper

Not the most exciting photo, but I wanted to add it to my Fungi Set : ) A friend pointed this out to me on a walk in North Weaselhead on 23 May 2012. It had just stopped raining, which is why this fungus looks the way it does, as explained in the information below.

"Cedar apple rust, which is caused by the fungus Gymnosporangium, needs juniper plants and certain Rose family plants (such as saskatoons, hawthorns, and in some cases, apples) to complete its life cycle. On junipers, the disease appears as woody, spherical galls. In the spring (early May), brown, horn-like projections called "telia" grow out of the woody galls. During wet weather, the telia absorb water, swell up immensely, and become orange and gelatinous. At this stage the disease emits spores that infect the Rose family plants to cause the bright orange spots. The orange spots will eventually produce their own horn-like structures called "aecia" on the fruit and underside of the leaves; from the aecia, spores are produced that re-infect the junipers in the late summer. The disease must pass from junipers to Rose family plants to junipers again; it cannot spread between Rose family plants."

gardenline.usask.ca/fruit/rust.html