A Heap of Trouble!

A Morning Glory vine decided to come up in the compost heap and cover the entire fence that surrounds it.  This was ok by me as I thought it would beautify an otherwise unsightly part of the yard.  Compost heaps are never the most attractive feature of any yard but serve an important purpose.  Lots of things can be recycled into nice fertile soil to be used in the gardens.  I eagerly awaited the blooming of the vine.  Would it be the pale lavender ones that grew near the marsh edge or the dark blue ones in the Rose Garden.  Perhaps even one of the white ones that grow wild near the grapefruit tree had a seed sprout in the compost pile!  It could happen to be any of these as birds and animals carry the seeds about the place.

Today, I noticed a number of the Long-tailed Skippers flitting about the pile but could not see any flowers from the kitchen window.  What was up with that?  I grabbed the camera and headed out the back door!  Butterflies should not be where there are no flowers!    By the time I reached the heap, I had counted at least six of the Skippers!  When I was just a few feet from the compost pile, I saw that the vine actually had numerous blooms!  These blooms were just tiny!  They were not like the huge flowers of the cultivated vines that I planted..these were difficult to see!  Teeny-tiny purple blooms dotted the vine.  On those teeny-tiny flowers, the Skippers were feeding!  The butterflies dwarfed the flowers!  But what was this?  The leaves of the vine were covered with orange and yellow bumps!  I touched the back of one leaf and found that the "yellow" easily came off on my fingers.  Oh, no....Rust!

Plant Rust is a disease that gets on many plants especially during the rainy season. This is a fungi that infects the leaves of the plant.  Moisture causes it to spread until it covers the leaves. We have had some rather rainy days lately and I suppose that was enough to infect the entire plant.  There is not much that can be done for a plant that has been covered with the fungus other than ripping it out and burning it.  This will keep the spores from being blown around and infecting another plant.  So...tomorrow, the Morning Glory that resides in the compost heap will be eliminated!