Cladosporium herbarum

A slow-growing fungus that produces a olive green or olivaceous brown velvety colony with an greenish-black reverse, when incubated at 25oC (77oF) in ten days. The hyphae, conidiophores, and conidia are pigmented olivaceous-brown (dematiaceous). It is found worldwide and is the most common fungus isolated from the dead organic matter, air, soil, desert soil, caves, fresh and salt water, salt marshes, sewage and activated sludge, compost beds, guano, decaying woods, and on plants. Rarely, it can be an opportunistic human pathogen but it can cause an immediate-type hypersensitivity – type I (IgE-mediated) extrinsic asthma.

Back to Glossary Index Page