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

See Examples For:

chestnut blight

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

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023

As instances of this nature may be mentioned English potato scab, silver scurf, chestnut blight disease and citrus canker, specimens of all of which had been secured by correspondence or requests for mycological assistance.

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

At the height of the American chestnut blight, every woodland breeze would lose spores in uncountable trillions to drift in a pretty, lethal haze on to neighboring hillsides.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson