chestnut blight

noun

Plant Pathology.

1. a disease of chestnuts, especially the American chestnut, characterized by bark lesions that girdle and eventually kill the tree, caused by a fungus, Endothia parasitica.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chestnut blight¹

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

But his legacy came at a cost which Appalachia has paid ever since: The imported chestnut blight killed nearly 4 billion American chestnut trees across 200 million acres of US forest.

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When the 1904 chestnut blight hit, Flora was nearly a decade into her career at the USDA.

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American chestnuts were once the dominant tree species in the Eastern United States, until the chestnut blight of the early 1900s killed almost all of them.

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“You’ve got the American chestnut blight and the Dutch elm disease, but this seems extraordinarily rapid and severe.”

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"You've got the American chestnut blight and the Dutch elm disease, but this seems extraordinarily rapid and severe."

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