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
Borlaug had gone to Mexico specifically to work with wheat, which was being devastated by a fungal disease called stem rust.
—
Elizabeth Kolbert,
New Yorker,
23 June 2025
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
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
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Elizabeth Kolbert,
New Yorker,
23 June 2025
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
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
Cite this Entry
“Stem rust.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stem%20rust. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.
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