Mortierella polycephala

Mortierella polycephala
UAMH 1152 grown on oatmeal agar at 25 C for 66 days
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Mortierellomycota
Class: Mortierellomycetes
Order: Mortierellales
Family: Mortierellaceae
Genus: Mortierella
Species:
M. polycephala
Binomial name
Mortierella polycephala
Coemans (1863)
Synonyms
  • Mortierella vantieghemi Bachmann (1900)
  • Mortierella vantieghemii Bachmann (1900)
  • Mortierella raphani Dauphin (1908)

Mortierella polycephala is a saprotrophic fungus with a wide geographical distribution occurring in many different habitats from soil and plants to salt marshes and slate slopes. It is the type species of the genus Mortierella, and was first described in 1863 by Henri Coemans. A characteristic feature of the fungus is the presence of stylospores, which are aerial, spiny resting spores (chlamydospores).