Pinyon Pine Needle Rust
11 Sep 2022
Ink painting/drawing of Pinyon pine needle rust (Cronartium ribicola) on golden current (Ribes aureum).
Original photo by @Disholcaspis forwarded to me by @pascal_frey. I extrapolated the missing parts of the leaf from the original photo.
The painting shows a green golden current leaf, with round yellow lesions. Where the lesions are bordered by a leaf vein, they have a flat edge ending at the vein. Concentric circles of orange dots within the yellow lesions represent the rust fungus sporulating structures.
Top: scanned image
Middle: photograph
Bottom: montage with reference image
This is one of the few plant pathogen paintings that is not a composition. It is a direct copy from a delightful photograph that was sent to me on twitter.
The painting and photograph are set side-by-side. Both show a leaf, covered in patches of concentric rings of rust spores, as though someone has painted little targets on the leaf. Some patches of rings/spores are blocked by leaf veins, resulting in half or 2/3 target circles. The painting is done in a simplified style, where the leaf is light green, the targets are yellow and orange, and the outline and major leaf veins are black.
