Taxonomy and Naming
The genus was first described in the scientific literature by Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link in his 1809 work Observationes in ordines plantarum naturales. Link included three species—P. candidum, P. expansum, and P. glaucum—all of which produced a brush-like conidiophore (asexual fruiting structure). The common apple rot fungus P. expansum was selected as the type species.
In a 1979 monograph, John I. Pitt divided Penicillium into four subgenera based on conidiophore morphology and branching pattern: Aspergilloides, Biverticillium, Furcatum, and Penicillium.
Penicillium is classified as a genus of anamorphic fungi in the division Ascomycota (order Eurotiales, class Eurotiomycetes, family Trichocomaceae). The genus name is derived from the Latin root penicillium, meaning "painter's brush", and refers to the chains of conidia that resemble a broom.
Read more about this topic: Penicillium
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)