"Chestnut blight" refers to a disease that affects chestnut trees. It is caused by a fungus that attacks and kills the trees by infecting their bark. Full definition
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. (discovermagazine.com)
They are victims of the devastating chestnut blight that reached Maryland a hundred years ago. (firstthings.com)
However, early in the twentieth century the fungal pathogen that creates chestnut blight was accidentally imported into the U.S. from Asia, and by 1950 the American Chestnut had disappeared from our landscape. (www2.erie.gov)