Symptoms of celery mosaic virus include a distinct mottled pattern on the leaves, distorted leaf growth with exaggerated rosette formation.

Some strains of celery mosaic virus cause a "crinkled" pattern to form on the leaves of the plant.

[5] Oftentimes, plants infected with celery mosaic virus early in their development do not produce usable crops.

[7][8] In addition to celery, this virus has been identified in other important crops in the Apiaceae including carrots (Daucus carota), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), and dill (Anethum graveolens).

It has also been identified in several weed species in the family Apiaceae, including poison hemlock (Conium maculatum),[9] mock bishopweed (Ptilimnium capillaceum) and wild cherry (Apium leptophyllum).

[30] Celery grown in fields that have been host free for 2–3 months show greatly reduced risk of exposure to CeMV.

[31] Many studies have shown reduced virus outbreaks and severity in fields treated with reflective mulch which can provide unappealing visual stimuli to infected aphids.

It was found to be 9999 nucleotides in length, encoding for 3181 amino acids in a single large open reading frame, and sharing between 39 and 72% of its sequence identity with other members of the genus Potyvirus, and is most closely related to Apium virus Y.