OBLIGATE PHYTOPARASITIC FUNGI AS PLANT TAXONOMISTS - AN OVERVIEW UNDER SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF THE RUST FUNGUS PUCCINIA-LAGENOPHORAE

The close relationship between obligate phytoparasitic fungi and their hosts is regarded as a result of coevolutionary events. The host rang e of these microfungi is mostly restricted to groups of related specie s. Therefore, some of those fungi may serve to indicate relationships between their host plants. Such investigations not only serve plant ta xonomists, bur also phytopathologists. This is demonstrated and discus sed with regard to Puccinia lagenophorae, a polyphagous rust species n ative to Australia, which is to be used as a ''bioherbicide'' against the weed Senecio vulgaris in Europe.