Phragmidium rosae-pimpinellifoliae. Now that's a name and a half!

I came across this outstandingly orange fungus yesterday. I could see it way ahead of me as I walked along the path, and immediately thought that someone had thrown their discarded orange peel in the hedge! 

On closer inspection though, I found that it was in fact a rust fungus, that goes by the snappy name of Phragmidium rosae-pimpinellifoliae, which occasionally infests the wild Burnet rose. 

The Burnet rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia) can be seen in flower in Britain and Ireland from May until the end of August and are the thorniest of all the wild roses. 

They have five-petalled white flowers, sometimes splashed with a little pink. They can look a little like wild Dog Rose, but later in the year, their hips are coloured purple, unlike other wild roses which have red or scarlet hips.

The strikingly coloured Burnet Rose rust

I'm glad that I do a written Blog rather than a spoken one, as I would have to practice how to say the scientific name of this fungus for some time to get it right!