Forty years ago, an unusual name— closterovirus—was coined for an unusual group of elongated plant viruses (BarJoseph and Hull, 1974). This essay reflects my personal encounter with these viruses between 1966 and 1986, a period that could be considered the beginning of the emergence of the Closteroviridae as an exciting complex virus family. The first two viruses assigned to this group, Beet ye...
