16/Aug/2026, 03:17 AM
Tallinn, Harju, Eesti
Home lab room Culture on blue Gorgonzola cheese
Local shop
Original Instagram postPenicillium glaucum
Gorgonzola mold
- Scientific identification
- Penicillium glaucum Link
- Family
- Aspergillaceae
- Class
- Eurotiomycetes
- Genus
- Penicillium
Names across languages
- English: Gorgonzola mold
- German: Gorgonzola-Schimmel
- Finnish: Gorgonzola-home
- Estonian: Sinakashall pintselhallik
- Russian: Пеницилл сизый
The scientific profile
From the latest record: 2026-08-16.
Body
Filamentous mould forming dense white mycelium that develops sage-green, blue-green to grey-green coloration as conidia mature; colonies may be velvety, powdery or floccose depending on substrate and conditions
Description
Spore mass sage-green to blue-green or grey-green
Description
Saprobic; domesticated strains are deliberately cultivated inside blue-veined cheeses (Gorgonzola, Bleu de Gex, Rochebaron, Bleu d'Auvergne)
Description
Selected cultures historically called P. glaucum have been used in some blue cheeses
Fruit body
Microscopic filamentous mould forming visible spreading colonies, sometimes covering many centimetres of substrate
Dimensions
Colony variable according to substrate, temperature and culture medium; no discrete macroscopic fruit body
Odour
Strong, mouldy and characteristic; during cheese ripening contributes to the distinctive pungent blue-cheese aroma
Taste
Characteristically mild and piquant when present as a food-grade culture in ripened blue cheese
Microscopy
Branched conidiophores up to ~200–400 µm long, bearing brush-like groups of phialides; conidia globose, smooth, ~2.5 µm, in long chains
Overview
Classic sage- to blue-green Penicillium mould with brush-like conidiophores
1809). Mag. Gesell. Naturf. Freunde, Berlin 3(1-2): 17.
Field encounters
Source hashtags
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