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:
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)