💠 #Syncephalastrum racemosum: A mucormycete (prev. ‘zygomycete’). Commonly considered a contaminant in clinical mycology specimens, rarely known to cause infection. Always super cute like a little flower 🌻
🔹Each one of those finger-like “petals” is a merosporangia, and as this little beauty matures, each sporangia will be filled with stacks of spores on top of each other. If you look closely, the one on the right has 3-4 spores per merosporangia (petal) at this time. Eventually, that number can reach 18!! When immature and merosporangia are less developed, this organism can be mistaken for Cunninghamella, which also looks a little bit like a flower, but each one of its ‘petals’ only produces one lonely spore.
🔸 When very mature, and the merosporangia have extended full length and emptied, this organism has can be mistaken for Aspergillus niger.
🔸 Cute little bugger, but if you don’t catch it at *just* the right time, identification can be tricky!
@Medicalmycology
🔹Each one of those finger-like “petals” is a merosporangia, and as this little beauty matures, each sporangia will be filled with stacks of spores on top of each other. If you look closely, the one on the right has 3-4 spores per merosporangia (petal) at this time. Eventually, that number can reach 18!! When immature and merosporangia are less developed, this organism can be mistaken for Cunninghamella, which also looks a little bit like a flower, but each one of its ‘petals’ only produces one lonely spore.
🔸 When very mature, and the merosporangia have extended full length and emptied, this organism has can be mistaken for Aspergillus niger.
🔸 Cute little bugger, but if you don’t catch it at *just* the right time, identification can be tricky!
@Medicalmycology