Plum pox Plum pox Plum pox, also known as sharka, is the most devastating viral disease of stone fruit from the genus "Prunus". The disease is caused by the plum pox virus (PPV), and the different strains may infect a variety of stone fruit species including peaches, apricots, plums, nectarine, almonds, and sweet and tart cherries. Wild and ornamental species of "Prunus" may also become infected by some strains of the virus. The virus is transmitted by aphids and by the transfer of infected plant material to new locations. Plum pox poses no danger to consumers, but it can ruin the marketability
Plum-headed parakeet the French name "Le perruche a teste bleu" and the Latin name "Psittaca cyanocephalos". Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his "Systema Naturae" for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the plum-headed parakeet. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name "Psittacus cyanocephalus" and cited Brisson's work. The specific name "cyanocephalus/cyanocephala" combines the Ancient Greek words "kuanos" "dark-blue" and "-kephalos"