A FABI paper reporting the discovery of cypress canker on a native South African cedar tree is featured on the cover of the current issue of Plant Pathology. On a fieldtrip to the Franschoek Valley in 2021, Prof. Mike Wingfield noticed dieback of many trees in a natural stand of Widdringtonia nodiflora, the mountain cedar. These trees had resinous cankers with spore masses typical of Seiridium species. Mike and the rest of the team, consisting of Prof. Brenda Wingfield, Prof. Francois Roets (Stellenbosch University), Dr Janneke Aylward, Nam Pham, Dr Seonju Marincowitz and Dr Trudy Paap, described the disease, isolated the causal agent, and performed an inoculation trial to confirm Koch’s postulates. Not only is this the first report of cypress canker on a native South African tree, but it is also the first report of the pathogen, Seiridium neocupressi, in the country. Seiridium species are aggressive pathogens of Cuppressaceae trees and this discovery on a native tree in its natural environment is highly concerning, especially because the mountain cedar is one of only three native South African Cuppressaceae species. Many questions remain to be answered, of which the most intriguing are where the pathogen originated and how it arrived in the Franschoek Valley.