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Definition 2024


curly_top

curly top

English

Noun

curly top (uncountable)

  1. (agriculture) A disease of beets, gourds, and other plants, caused by the virus Beet curly top virus, which results in stunted or misshapen growth and curled or puckered leaves.
    • 1997 June 18, Karen Freeman, "Katherine Esau Is Dead at 99: A World Authority on Botany," New York Times (retrieved 19 May 2014):
      She soon joined the Spreckels Company near Salinas, Calif., where she worked on a sugar beet that would be resistant to the curly top virus.
    • 2014 April 28, Patty Cafferata, "History: Leafhoppers trounced sugar beet investors," Reno Gazette Journal (retrieved 19 May 2014):
      [T]he local pigweed hosted microscopic leafhoppers that jumped from the surrounding weeds to the beet fields. The insects spread a virus commonly referred to as "curly top."

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