Anthracnose

Abstract

The term “anthracnose” has been used for two distinct types of disease, one characterized by a typical necrotic spot, a lesion of dead tissue, and the other by some hyperplastic symptom, such as a raised border around a more or less depressed center. The word was coined in France for the latter type, to differentiate a grape disease from a smut of cereals, both of which were called charbon. The new word was taken from the Greek Anthrax (carbuncle) and nosos (disease), and was first used for the grape disease, caused by Sphaceloma ampelina, the chief symptom of which was a bird’s-eye spot with a raised border.