While these organisms affect many types of plants, the destructive aspect of infection is limited to a few agricultural crops, including: beets (garden and sugar), Brussels sprouts, cabbages, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collards, garden cress, kale, lettuce, mustards, parsnip, radish, horseradish, rapeseed, salsify (black or white), spinach, sweet potatoes, turnips, watercress, and perhaps water-spinach.

In the spring the oospores germinate and produce sporangia on short stalks called sporangiophores that become so tightly packed within the leaf that they rupture the epidermis and are consequently spread by the wind.

The liberated sporangia in turn can either germinate directly with a germ tube or begin to produce biflagellate motile zoospores.

These zoospores then swim in a film of water to a suitable site and each one produces a germ tube - like that of the sporangium - that penetrates the stoma.

Favorable conditions for the dispersal and consequent infection of white rust from diseased to healthy plants are most common in the autumn and spring seasons.

White rust ranges worldwide and is able to survive varying weather conditions due to its production of multiple spore types.

[2] Both conventional and organic fungicides are available and could be used to limit spread and yield losses during the spring, early summer and fall on crops and susceptible neighboring plants.

Each of the 17 specific races of the white rust pathogen affects different plants so monitoring is essential as much as possible to limit overuse and cost of fungicide treatments.

White rust is an economically important foliar disease, causing substantial yield losses and eventual death of various crops.

Yield losses of up to 20 percent have been recorded in canola fields, and white rust is considered the most important foliar disease of Brassicaceae species in Australia.