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

Examples of chestnut blight in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Floristic changes following the chestnut blight may be delayed for decades Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. —Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 4 Oct. 2024

The woodrats’ food sources have also taken a hit, such as chestnut trees destroyed by chestnut blight and acorn-producing oak trees imperiled by the spongy moth. —Christine Condon, Baltimore Sun, 17 June 2024

And the infamous chestnut blight, a fungus accidentally introduced from Asia to North America in the late 1800s, wiped out billions of American chestnut trees. —Jason Delborne, Discover Magazine, 23 Jan. 2019

But the chestnut blight five years earlier, that was still fresh. —Hilda Gitchell, Scientific American, 26 Jan. 2023

When the 1904 chestnut blight hit, Flora was nearly a decade into her career at the USDA. —Hilda Gitchell, Scientific American, 26 Jan. 2023

As instances of this nature may be mentioned English potato scab, silver scurf, chestnut blight disease and citrus canker, specimens of all of which had been secured by correspondence or requests for mycological assistance. —Hilda Gitchell, Scientific American, 26 Jan. 2023

American chestnut trees have been decimated by chestnut blight, a fungal disease likely introduced to the United States a century ago by trees arriving from Asia. —Discover Magazine, 22 Nov. 2010

Ozark chinquapins were once abundant in the Ozarks, but a fungal disease, chestnut blight, spread through the region in the 1960s wiping out most Ozark chinquapins. —Flip Putthoff, Arkansas Online, 8 Mar. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

chestnut blight

noun

: a destructive disease of the chestnut of the eastern U.S. caused by a fungus