Introduction of Sugarcane Rust into the Americas and Its Spread to Florida. L. H. Purdy, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611. S. V. Krupa, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108; and J. L. Dean, U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS, Sugarcane Field Station, Star Route Box 8, Canal Point, FL 33438. Plant Dis. 69:689-693. Accepted for publication 19 February 1985. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-689.

Sugarcane rust appeared in the Americas in 1978, probably as a result of transoeceanic transport of urediospores of Puccinia melanocephala from the Cameroons in West Africa to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Based on upper-air wind trajectories, urediospores could have arrived in the Dominican Republic 9 days after they were airborne over the Cameroons. After rapid disease development in the Dominican Republic on the very susceptible sugarcane cultivar B 4362, the rust spread in the Americas to Venezuela in the south and to Florida in the north by wind transport of urediospores.