Although this fungus was not listed as occurring in New Zealand until 1939, there is in the herbarium at Plant Diseases Division a collection on mangels from Feilding gathered in 1926. No further collections were filed until 1938, when it was collected in the Auckland area. It is now widely distributed in the North Island, especially in Auckland and North Auckland in areas where continuous cropping is practised. In warm wet seasons it is responsible for considerable crop losses. Smith (1961) recommended crop rotation as a measure for its control in fodder beet.