chestnut blight

American  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of chestnut blight

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

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.

From Washington Times • Oct. 17, 2020

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

From Salon • Jun. 7, 2020

The chestnut blight arguably ended Appalachian subsistence farming as a common practice, forcing upon a region’s worth of people a stark choice: Go into the coal mines, or move away.

From New York Times • Apr. 30, 2020

The outbreak of Dutch elm disease was initially detected in Cleveland in the 1930s — even as American plant pathologists were fighting a losing battle with chestnut blight.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 13, 2018

Chestnut was especially popular—not the imported European chestnut roasted on Manhattan street corners in the fall, but the smaller, soft-shelled, deeply sweet native American chestnut, now almost extinguished by chestnut blight.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann