potato blight

British  

noun

1. a devastating disease of potatoes produced by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans and the cause of the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century

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Example Sentences

Even 175 years after Ireland's devastating famine caused by an introduced potato blight, we're still struggling to combat these diseases.

From Salon

Researchers believe that in the 1840s a strain of the pathogen Phytophthora infestans, which causes potato blight, followed trade routes from Mexico to Belgium, where it began damaging crops.

From Salon

Von Hippel begins with efforts to tackle the causes of potato blight, which triggered the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and typhus.

From Nature

“Pythium is a disease of plants, too. This organism is similar to the organism that caused the potato blight in Ireland in the 1800s.”

From Washington Post

Most potatoes grown in Ireland were of a single variety, the Irish Lumper, which had no inherent resistance to Phytophthora infestans, the microorganism that causes potato blight.

From Scientific American