aster yellows

American  

noun

Plant Pathology.

1. a dwarfing and yellowing of asters and various other plants, caused by a mycoplasma transmitted by a leafhopper.

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Etymology

Origin of aster yellows

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

“It looks like it stays in a juvenile phase,” said Saskia Hogenhout, a scientist at the John Innes Centre in England, who studies the life cycle of the parasite, which is called Aster Yellows phytoplasma.

From New York Times

One stumbling block was the prevalence of a disease named aster yellows, which killed almost a quarter of all the plants in the trial and interfered with the long-term evaluation.

From Washington Post