In addition to many questions that originate with home owners and gardeners, she gets hundreds from commercial growers. Some, such as corn, have been studied to death. Others are more exotic. Echinacea and ginseng, for instance, are new high-value crops in the expanding medicinal herb business. Echinacea is a flowering plant thought to fight colds and the flu.
Marketers say ginseng boosts vitality.
And, like viruses that attack humans, these cannot be cured. Some are not deadly, but there isn't much you can do once the plant is infected. There is no Ebola virus in the plant world, but some viruses will kill plants - it may just take a while. Sometimes no treatment is necessary, Putnam pointed out. They may just have an abnormality or be suffering from excess fertilizer, cold injury or general stress.