Mold of the Week: Cladosporium
Colony Description:
Colonies appear powdery to woolly, greyish-green to olivaaceous-green in colour.
Spore (Conidia) Description:
Dark-pigmented forming simple or branching chains.
Habitat outdoors:
Soil, plant litter, leaf surfaces or decaying plants. Hence, sampling the air after heavy rains results in elevated spore counts of Cladosporium.
Habitat Indoors:
In Saint Lucia, mainly isolated from air conditioning systems: blower wheels, supply registers and surfaces due to condensation.
On concrete surfaces due to extremely high relative humidity and condensation.
Also isolated on ceiling tiles, air conditioning conduits, window sills and water saturated materials.
Potential Health Effects:
Common and important allergen.
Type I allergies (hay fever, asthma).
Type III hypersensitivity pneumonitis: Hot tub lung, Mouldy wall hypersensitivity.
Photo credit: https://mycology.adelaide.edu.au/descriptions/hyphomycetes/cladosporium/
Pictures of areas where Cladosporium has been isolated in the Caribbean