Abstract A virus with filamentous particles approximately 750 nm long was isolated from African oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ) with `chlorotic ring' leaf symptoms in south‐western Colombia. The virus was mechanically transmitted from oil palm to brachiaria, maize, sorghum, and sugarcane ( Gramineae ) but not to any of 20 species in other plant families tested. In African oil palm, the virus is associated with cytoplasmic inclusions (pinwheels, laminated aggregates and scrolls) characteristic of subdivision III of the Potyviridae . Partial sequences obtained for fragments of the large nuclear inclusion (NIb) and capsid (CP) proteins, and for the entire 3′ untranslated region (UTR), showed amino acid sequence identities of 91.8% (NIb) and 95% (CP), and a nucleotide sequence identity of 90.8% (UTR) with strains of Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). We thus conclude that the virus associated with the `chlorotic ring' of African oil palm in Colombia is a species of the Potyvirus genus and, more specifically, a strain of SCMV.