chestnut blight
noun
: a destructive disease of the American chestnut and American chinquapins marked by cankers of the bark and cambium and caused by a fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica synonym Endothia parasitica) introduced into the U.S. from Asia in the early 1900s
Chestnut blight … quickly spread throughout the eastern states and by 1930, it destroyed virtually all mature chestnut trees.—David Allen Sibley
Chestnut blight, a classic among plant diseases, is caused by an introduced fungus that has nearly eliminated its host …—Sandra L. Anagnostakis
It has 17 canker-like sores, some as big around as a turkey platter, and thousands of "pycnidia"—the tiny, orange spore-cases that characterize spreading chestnut blight.—Cindy Anderson
also
: the fungus causing chestnut blight
Known as chestnut blight, it was first discovered in the New York Zoological Garden in 1904 and was soon carried throughout the country by wind, rain, birds, and other animals. —Susan Freinkel
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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