The recently reported epidemic of rust in Britain on wild and cultivated varieties of the daisy (Bellis perennis), caused by Puccinia distincta, was preceded by records on cultivated plants at Bristol in 1972 and Bognor Regis in 1973 and by sporadic observations of rust on cultivated daisies thereafter in the period from 1978–1996. The first verifiable report of the pathogen on wild B. perennis was from Leeds in 1988. In the spring of 1997, a rust epidemic broke out on wild as well as cultivated daisies, as indicated by numerous reports mainly from the south of Britain. The current paper charts the distribution of P. distincta in Britain from 1972 onwards and speculates about its likely origin.