ASYMMETRICA-FASCICULATA 530 



Birkinshaw, Bracken, and Raistrick in 1943 reported the isolation in 

 fair yiekl of gentisyl alcohol (2 : 5-dihydroxybenzyl alcohol), along with 

 the antibiotic patulin, from the culture filtrate of Penicillium patulum 

 gro^^'n upon Raulin-Thom medium. The product was obtained as a color- 

 less crystalline sublimate, M.P. 100°C, having the empirical formula CyHsOs. 

 Gentisic aldehyde and gentisic acid were also identified as metabolic prod- 

 ucts of P. patulum. 



As noted earlier (see p. 154), Oxford, Raistrick, and Simonart (1935) 

 reported fulvic acid, a yellow crystalline pigment, as a metabolic product 

 of Penicillium griseo-fulvum Dierckx, P. flexuosum Dale, and P. hrefeldia- 

 num Dodge. 



The production of the same metabolic products cannot be taken per se 

 as evidence of the identity, or close natural relationship of two different 

 cultures of Penicillia. Oftentimes, however, such production is indicative 

 of a natural relationship. We believe this to be true in the case of Biourge's 

 so-called Penicillium griseo-fulvum Dierckx, strain No. 34. Cultural and 

 morphological criteria indicate a close similarity between this strain and 

 P. urticae Bainier. The production of gentisic acid by this strain and of 

 gentisic acid and gentisyl alcohol by P. patulum (= P. urticae) affords 

 additional evidence of relationship. Finally, the production of fulvic acid 

 by this strain and by P. flexuosum {— P. urticae) is believed to furnish still 

 further evidence of such relationship. The production of fulvic acid by 

 P. hrefeldianum, on the other hand, represents a case where biochemical 

 behavior appears to be independent of natural relationships, since the two 

 species are strikingly different in both cultural and morphological charac- 

 teristics. 



Penicillium granulatum Series 



Outstanding Characters 



Colonies are typically strongly fasciculate with a majority of the conidio- 

 phores aggregated into well-marked fascicles or coremia up to 2 mm. 

 or more high, but with simple conidiophores regularly produced and in 

 older stock cultures often predominating. Conidiophores comprising 

 the coremium tending to diverge and often terminating as a feathery 

 mass of conidial structures. 



Conidiophores variable in length depending upon the strain and the sub- 

 stratum, arising primarily from submerged hyphae, with walls con- 

 spicuously roughened and with branches and metulae usually similarly 

 but less prominently marked. 



Penicilli large, asymmetric, usually showing one or more branches in addi- 

 tion to the main axis and with each major element bearing successively 

 verticils of metulae and sterigmata with conidia in tangled chains. 



