Blue mold is a downy mildew disease of tobacco that is caused by Peronospora tabacina, a fungus-like protist in the family Peronosporaceae. Blue mold can cause severe damage to susceptible tobacco plants in many parts of the world. Since it is an obligate parasite, it must have living tobacco tissue in order to grow.
Although tobacco remains the primary host for this disease, other hosts including pepper plants and eggplants can also be reservoirs.
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or mold:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“indolence read as abnegation,
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every lapse forgiven, our crime
only to cast too bold a shadow
or smash the mold straight off.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)