leaf rust

American  

noun

Plant Pathology.

1. a disease, especially of cereals and other grasses, characterized by rust-colored pustules of spores on the affected leaf blades and sheaths and caused by any of several rust fungi.

---

Etymology

Origin of leaf rust

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

A wakeup call came in 2012, when shifts in temperature and rainfall linked to climate change triggered an outbreak of coffee leaf rust, a debilitating fungus, that would affect Latin America for years.

From Salon • Jul. 24, 2024

Its low genetic diversity means it could be completely decimated, like the monoculture Cavendish banana, by pathogens, such as coffee leaf rust, which causes $1-2 billion in losses annually.

From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2024

The program, which built on the organization’s earlier work, began as Central America was in the grips of a coffee leaf rust epidemic about a decade ago.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 2, 2021

Beyond alleged counterfeiters, his nemeses are rats, invasive plants, twig- and berry-boring beetles and coffee leaf rust, a predatory fungus from 19th century Africa that reached the Big Island last fall.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2021

He wants to replant hundreds of trees in a fallow area where leaf rust - a fungus that damages flowering - forced him to uproot coffee plants a few years ago.

From Reuters • May 22, 2019