Aspergillus clavatus

Aspergillus clavatus is a mold in the genus Aspergillus, named for the elongated, club-shaped vesicles that carry its blue-green spore-bearing cells. It was first described scientifically in 1834 by the French mycologist Desmazieres. It grows quickly on laboratory media and in nature is found in soil and animal dung, on stored cereals and in decomposing material, and it tolerates strongly alkaline conditions. It has a worldwide, mostly warm-climate distribution. The fungus makes the toxin patulin and other metabolites, and it was once studied as a source of an antibiotic. Its spores are allergenic, and breathing them in causes the occupational lung disease known as malt-worker lung, while in weakened patients it can act as an opportunistic cause of aspergillosis. It is classed in the section Clavati, and a sexual stage was described in 2018.