Word: phytophthora
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Modern specialists in plant diseases would recognize these ominous signs as symptoms of Phytophthora infestans, a species of fungus with rapid germinating properties and extremely virulent effects. To the half-savage, wholly uneducated peasantry, it was known simply as "the Blight," and regarded as a hellish, heaven-sent scourge. Holy-water and incantation were the only remedies invoked against it. Its onset marked the beginning of perhaps the most bitter famine in post-medieval European history...
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