Cineraria on Long Island were found to have a new rust disease in 2002. The rust is Puccinia lagenophorae, which originated in Australia and has spread to Great Britain and Europe. Symptoms on cineraria are yellow patches covered with the aecia (shallow cups filled with spores) of the fungus; the leaf is often distorted because the infected areas are swollen. The rust fungus also infects groundsel, Senecio vulgaris, which has also been found rust-infected on Long Island and in other east coast locations as well as in California. Cineraria growers should be especially careful to eliminate groundsel from the vicinity of their greenhouses to reduce the chance that this rust will be transmitted from the weed to the greenhouse flower crop.