Our world has been held in the grip of a pandemic. But humans are not the only ones suffering from global diseases on the rise. For Australian plants, their pandemic story began ten years ago. Known as myrtle-rust, this fungal disease came to Australia by unknown means in 2010, and is infecting and destroying many of our native plants. At most risk are plants from the myrtle family including well-loved Australians such as lillipillis, tea-trees and native guavas. For some of these species this disease could mean the end.