Leaf spots are round blemishes found on the leaves of many species of plants, mostly caused by parasitic fungi or bacteria.
A typical spot is "zonal", meaning it has a definite edge and often has a darker border. When lots of spots are present, they can grow together and become a blight or a blotch. Fungal spots are usually round or free-form in shape.
In most cases, leaf spots are considered to be only a cosmetic problem, but they can have economic effects on nurseries or in floriculture.
Famous quotes containing the words leaf and/or spot:
“I will not speak of the famous beauty of dead women:
I will say the shape of a leaf lay once on your hair.
Till the world ends and the eyes are out and the mouths broken,
Look! It is there!”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)
“... but by that time a lot of sea had rolled by and Lucette was too tired to wait. Then the night was filled with the rattle of an old but still strong helicopter. Its diligent beam could spot only the dark head of Van, who, having been propelled out of the boat when it shied from its own sudden shadow, kept bobbing and bawling the drowned girl’s name in the black, foam-veined, complicated waters.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)