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

See Examples For:

potato blight

Multiple factors caused the famine, including the potato blight that destroyed the main source of food, and the political and socioeconomic circumstances of British colonial rule.

From BBC ● May 22, 2026

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

From Salon ● May 31, 2023

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 ● Aug. 30, 2020

One species Phytophthora infestans causes the potato blight, which led to the Irish potato famine.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

Nor had they to do with such frightful industrial disturbances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest or by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845.

From Woman in Science With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind by John Augustine Zahm

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