Colony morphology

colour, texture,
pigment
 Colony morphology – colour, texture,
pigment
• Fungi are a group of eukaryotic organisms which include
microorganisms such as yeast, filamentous fungi, and mushrooms.
• Fungi grow well under moist and warm conditions. They can be
classified based on their morphological and molecular
characteristics.
• Morphological characteristics can be easily observed by growing
fungi on solid media such as potato dextrose agar (PDA). PDA is the
medium used to cultivate fungi commonly in laboratories.
• When fungi grow on solid media, they grow as colonies. Fungal
colony morphologies are different between different types of fungi.
Characteristics such as pigmentation, texture etc can be studied from
fungal colonies.
Colony morphology – colour, texture,
pigment
• Different types of fungi will produce different-
looking colonies, some colonies may be coloured,
some colonies are circular in shape, and others are
irregular.
• A specific terminology is used to describe common
colony types. These are:
Form - For example, circular, filamentous, etc.
Size – The diameter of the colony. Tiny colonies are
referred to as punctiform
Elevation - This describes the side view of a colony.
Turn the Petri dish on end.
Margin/border – The edge of a colony.
Surface -For example, smooth, glistening, rough,
wrinkled, or dull.
Opacity - For example, transparent (clear), opaque,
translucent (like looking through frosted glass),
etc.
Colour - (pigmentation) - For example, white, buff,
red, purple, etc.

Yeast colonies are very similar to bacterial colonies.

Moulds often have fuzzy edges. They usually turn
into a different colour, from the centre outwards.
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