These trees, once the king of American forests in the Northeast ... rust-colored fungus growing on the bark of chestnut trees there. Soon, those trees were dead, as the pathogenic fungus known ...

The fungus would grow in wounds in the tree bark, causing blisters that blocked the flow of sap and slowly killed the tree.

The fungus would grow in wounds in the tree bark, causing blisters that blocked the flow of sap and slowly killed the trees.