Botanic gardens are special places for people to relax, learn
and enjoy plants. They also play an important role in plant
conservation, research and to raise public awareness about the
importance of biodiversity. The living collections held by
Australian botanic gardens are an immense biological resource of
information on both individual plants and plant biodiversity. An
emerging threat to plants in the Myrtaceae family, both within
botanic gardens and the Australian landscape, is a recently
introduced fungal disease Myrtle rust. Myrtle rust is a fungal
disease affecting plants in the Myrtaceae family, including
Australian natives like bottle brushes, tea trees and eucalypts.
Rust diseases are very specific to plant species and Myrtle rust
is unlikely to affect plants other than those in the Myrtaceae
family. Myrtle rust on affected plants is typified by a large
number of yellow spores that can be easily spread by wind,
humans and animals. The spores prefer high humidity, low light,
temperatures over 15 °C an