Healthy plants are not only the aim of all gardeners, farmers, and foresters, but they also are the principal study object of plant biologists. However, it is only the stressed, injured, or diseased plant which exhibits the full range of possible structural and functional responses to challenges by harmful abiotic or biotic stimuli, consisting of highly variable forms of degeneration, adaptation, defense, or regeneration. In medicine, books on diseases are obviously much more numerous than books on healthy humans; in botany, by comparison, books on injured and diseased plants are much rarer. The present text tries to comprehend the current status of our knowledge of the possible structural changes in plants suffering from, e.g., genetic disorders, mechanical stresses, injuries, frost, heat, drought and mineral deficiencies and excesses, air pollutants, viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasitic vascular plants, nematodes, or insects. Almost 75 years after the last edition of Ernst Küster's book on Pathological Plant Anatomy (Pathologische Pflanzenanatomie), this is the first modern compilation of pathological plant anatomy. With more than 7000 references it covers the most relevant literature, including many older publications which have nearly fallen into oblivion, though they contain valuable and still unsurpassed information. In order to present this vast amount of information from the diverse fields in a lucid form, special emphasis was placed on schematic classifications which are illustrated in comprehensive graphs. More than half of the 1091 illustrations are original drawings and photomicrographs, including 102 in colour. In the first part of the book, the structural deviations in plants suffering from injury or disease are classified from the viewpoint of the plant, referring to the affected organelles, cells, tissues, and organs, while in the second part, they are grouped in the ``classical'' pattern of plant pathology according to the causal factors. Two smaller chapters finally cover aspects of the physiological background for the structural modifications, and the possible use of structural criteria for diagnostic purposes. Because proper knowledge of structural relations is the prerequisite for all further understanding of plant reactions, this monograph will not only be an important reference book for all scientists working in plant pathology and related field, but also for those involved in developmental, physiological, and molecular plant biology. Of interest to: all botanists, plant anatomists, plant pathologists, research institutions, science libraries.weiterlesen