[2] It has been tested, introduced, and targeted in Australia and New Zealand as an effective biocontrol agent for Asparagus asparagoides, also known as bridal creeper.

She ends this entry by writing, “I have not seen the aecidia.”[3] P. myrsiphylli is in the family Pucciniaceae, and the host-substratum are leaves that are alive from Myrsiphyllum falciforme.

"[3] The rust fungus shows up in early to late autumn with little, orange structures on the top of the leaves of the A. Asparagoides, and looking like warts.

[7] The researchers in this study found dormant teliospores on extremely diseased cladodes and stems around spring/early summer time in the winter/rainfall region.

[7] This suggests that the fungus survives the dry summer months on debris, when above-ground biomass of host plants have stopped growing.

[7] In southern Africa, the occurrence of P. myrsiphylli was dependent on the existence of living foliage of its host plant and season of rainfall.

[7] P. myrsiphylli is a very flexible pathogen, as shown by its ability to distribute widely throughout many different South African climate regions.

[7][8] Surveys identified Puccinia myrsiphylli as a possible biological control agent for A. asparagoides, which is also called bridal creeper.

[7] Conservationists see bridal creeper in areas of native vegetation as a threat, and had approved it as a target of biological control.

[4] P. myrsiphylli builds up resistance and oversummering inoculum which allows it to survive the harsh, dry summer and to return for the next growing season.

[4] The rust fungus Puccinia myrsiphylli requires 8 hours or more of the leaf being wet in order to infect bridal creeper.

[4] The way P. myrsiphylli works is by infecting leaves and stems, which cause heavy defoliation of bridal creeper plants.

[6] Combining P. myrsiphylli with another biological control agent, a leafhopper, Zygina sp., acted together to lessen the growth of rhizome length and number and biomass of tubers in A.

[11] In addition, a long-term 7-year study has shown decreases in seedling, shoot numbers, and above-ground biomass of A. asparagoides across all sites that were observed (using the biological control agents of the leafhopper and P.

[12] Some sites recorded greater declines in A. asparagoides on trellises than others due to varying climate and leafhopper factors.

[12] Due to the expansive nature of the study, scientists feel confident that the biocontrol agents of leafhopper and Puccinia myrsiphylli played a role in the decline of A.

[8] P. myrsiphylli is seen as a high quality example of effective biological control in New Zealand's 90-year history of weed biocontrol studies.