southern blight

American  

noun

Plant Pathology.

1. a disease of peanuts, tomatoes, and other plants, caused by a fungus, Sclerotium rolfsii, affecting the roots and resulting in rapid wilting.

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Example Sentences

This is probably down to Southern blight, a soil-borne fungus that attacks the base of plants, so everything above the damage — the entire top growth — withers and dies.

From Washington Post

Southern blight also attacks woody plants, and although it is a common garden ailment in states such as Florida and the Carolinas, it now reaches into southern Pennsylvania, where it has afflicted trees in Adams County around Gettysburg, which is usually celebrated for its apples.

From Washington Post