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

One was a pathogenic fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica, or chestnut blight.

From Salon • Dec. 18, 2023

But the chestnut blight five years earlier, that was still fresh.

From Scientific American • Jan. 26, 2023

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

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

Instead of a chestnut blight or Dutch elm disease or dogwood anthracnose, what if there was just a tree blight—something indiscriminate and unstoppable that swept through whole forests?

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson