stem rust

noun

1

: a rust attacking the stem of a plant

especially : a destructive disease especially of wheat caused by a rust fungus (Puccinia graminis) which produces reddish-brown lesions in the uredospore stage and black lesions in the teliospore stage and has any of several plants of the barberry family as an intermediate host

2

: the fungus causing stem rust

Examples of stem rust in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Wheat stem rust infection, for instance, is a pathogen normally seen in tropical countries such as Ethiopia, but for years has been observed in high-latitude areas including the U.K. and Scandinavian countries. —Tristan Bove, Fortune, 4 May 2023

Researchers have already discovered two new genes that help wheat resist a strain of wheat stem rust, a blight that overruns wheat. —Discover Magazine, 2 May 2018

Borlaug landed in the valley in the 1940s as an agricultural adviser for the Rockefeller Foundation while the farmers around him were beset by a fungus known as stem rust. —Washington Post, 22 Dec. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined at sense 1