chestnut blight

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chestnut blight(chestnut canker) A disease of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) caused by the fungus Endothia parasitica. Invasion of the vascular cambium by the pathogen results in wilting and the death of the tree. The introduction of the fungus to America from Asia around 1900 led to an epidemic, beginning on Long Island, New York, which by about 1935 had caused the wholesale destruction of the hitherto commercially important American chestnut.

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