It has a wide host and geographic range throughout North America and causes considerable economic damage in pine plantations in the United States.

Heterobasidion irregulare has been introduced to Italy (Lazio)(modifica) where it has been responsible for extensive tree mortality of stone pine.

Signs include the formation of white mycelia between bark scales followed by conks (fruit bodies) that usually form in the duff layer at the base of the tree or stump.

[9] The sexual reproductive structures of the fungus, annual or perennial basidiocarps, appear on decomposing stumps and at the base of dead trees and release spores in summer and fall to mid-winter.

When the conk temperatures are above freezing the spores of the fungus are released and carried by wind currents to land in open wounds or stumps of cut trees.

Factors such as gaseous regime (oxygen levels), pH of the soil, and moisture content, may affect fungal growth.

To do this, do not cut trees at major sporulation times, which are summer to late fall, and treat fresh stumps with protectants such as borax, which is registered as cellu-treat or sporax, either as a powder or in aqueous form.

However, they are not approved for use in the United States and it is uncertain whether they work on Heterobasidion irregulare because of the recent naming of this species, and not much research has been done outside of the US on its reaction to biocontrols.

[citation needed] This disease is economically important because of its effect on timber species, especially in plantations in the Midwest and Southeast in the United States.

It destroys commercially viable trees and causes losses both from reduction of marketable wood and increased cost of treatment to growers.