A fast-spreading, cosmopolitan pin mould. It is often the first mould on stale bread, a common cause of soft rot in ripe fruit and stored vegetables, and a frequent contaminant of agar and grain culture in mushroom growing (Wikipedia; Stamets & Chilton 1983). In compost it can raise the substrate temperature to about 35-40 C, which favours thermophiles that can then overheat the compost to levels lethal to mushroom mycelium (Stamets & Chilton 1983).
Not edible; a contaminant and spoilage mould. It can cause opportunistic zygomycosis (mucormycosis) in people with weakened immunity, which can be fatal. It may also cause respiratory infections, sinusitis and otomycosis (Wikipedia). Stamets & Chilton (1983) called it not a direct human pathogen; the more cautious recent view is used here.
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Habitat
Soil, air, dung and decaying material. It grows on bread, stored foods, ripe fruit (strawberry, melon, peach), vegetables, bulbs and seeds, and grows rapidly indoors (Wikipedia; Stamets & Chilton 1983). In mushroom culture it occurs on agar and grain spawn and in compost (Stamets & Chilton 1983).
Distribution
Cosmopolitan on all kinds of mouldy material, most common in tropical and subtropical regions (Wikipedia, citing Moore-Landecker 1972 and Onions et al. 1981).
Characteristics
Spreads by aerial stolons that can climb vertically or horizontally, anchored by rhizoids. Sporangiophores are unbranched, up to about 2.5 mm long and 20 um wide, with black sporangia. Spores are ovate, polygonal or angular depending on nutrients (Wikipedia, citing Onions et al. 1981). In culture it forms a creeping whitish hyphal network, then a dense mat of tall stalks with dark grey to black heads, like a forest of pins (Stamets & Chilton 1983). Optimum 25-30 C; all cells are killed in 10 minutes at 60 C. Tolerates pH 2.2-9.6. Cannot use nitrate, so it does not grow on Czapek agar (Wikipedia).
