Photographer Page

Patricia Kühfuss

Cosimino de Luca was one of the first people to notice brown, withering leaves on his family's olive trees. Since 2013, he has lost 800 trees, some of which more than 700 years old.

Maria Saponari, a researcher at the CNR in Bari, searches for answers for how to fight Xylella.

Giovanni and Daniela Melcarne, seen here with their daughter Daria at their olive mill in Gagliano del Capo, are working with scientists to find olive cultivars resistant to Xylella.

Paoloa Pailano looks on as workers burn the remnants of branches they trimmed off her infected trees in October 2016.

Angelo De Stradis, a scientist at the Italian National Research Centre (CNR) in Bari, uses a transmission electron microscope to take pictures of the surface of the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium.

There is no known cure for Xylella, but farmers often try home remedies anyway in attempts to save their trees. Here, for example, Gaetano de Nola feeds a sick tree an infusion of beech, acacia, grapefruit, and lemon extracts in 2016.

Most of the olive orchards near Bari are still untouched by Xylella. But will they survive in the future?

Olive tree farmers assemble in Veglie, near Lecce, for an informational event about Xylella on October 14, 2016.

Piles of wood cut from infected trees dry outside Renato Adamo's olive oil plant in Felline. Farmers often lay their tree trimmings out to dry before using them as firewood, but now they also have to burn the infected wood to keep the bacterium from spreading.

A female (right) and male (left) spittlebug sit under a microscope at the Italian National Research Centre (CNR) in Bari.