This page, Mold, is a general article about mold. As such, the main goal is to answer the question "what is mold?", i.e. the biology of mold. Issues relating to humans are also discussed, but are kept to short summaries. Human related mold issues are discussed in detail in other articles, e.g. Mold health issues, Mold prevention and Mold growth, assessment, and remediation. |
This article has previously been nominated to be moved. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination.
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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus. |
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Put under "Mould" - correct English spelling
editIs 'Mold' the correct US spelling? It is certainly wrong in England. Moreover it creates ambiguities with 'Mold' (which is a town).
If 'Mold' is the only US spelling then I agree we have a problem - but otherwise can it please be moved to "Mould" as I want to be able to recommend Wikipedia to students
(Are there other Wikipedia items which have similar properties?)
Aa42john (talk) 18:01, 1 December 2010 (UTC)::::
- Yes, "mold" is correct US spelling. Please see WP:ENGVAR for Wikipedia's guideline on national varieties of spelling. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 18:33, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
Natural predators?
editDoes mo(u)ld have any natural predators? 160.39.56.119 (talk) 00:57, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
- At the very least there are mold mites that graze on mold as a cow grazes on grass. They're currently only in this article as a See also dot point, so there's room for expansion. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 02:10, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
Odor of mold
editWith so many different kinds of mold, shouldn't the line: 'Mold has a musty odor.' be 'Most common molds have a musty odor.)? It seems improbable that every mold has a musty odor, but maybe they do! Zipzip50 (talk) 01:27, 29 July 2011 (UTC)
- Well I know one strain of mold that smells pleasant, like coconuts! I actually doubt that most molds do smell musty - the musty odor is associated with molds that grow in houses, but they're a tiny proportion of all the mold species in the world. I'd suggest just removing that sentence entirely. Any information about musty odor really belongs in Mold growth, assessment, and remediation. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 07:04, 29 July 2011 (UTC)
- Disagree. Descriptions of characteristics of molds belongs in this article. David Spector (talk) 15:42, 18 July 2013 (UTC)
Gallery
editI am removing the gallery of photographs of various different items covered in moulds. The reason for the removal is that Wikipedia is not a repository for images (try Wikimedia Commons for that) and galleries are generally [[ not considered to be a useful addition to a WP page.Jimjamjak (talk) 08:01, 27 October 2011 (UTC)
Toxicity
editi think that mould is not that toxic .. you konow we eat it on cheeze right — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.80.102.59 (talk) 19:45, 1 May 2012 (UTC)
- Mold is not a single species. Some molds are toxic, some are not. Cheese molds are not. David Spector (talk) 15:46, 18 July 2013 (UTC)
Change in Importance
editI've changed this article's importance level to reflect the fact that mold is one of the significant fungi-related topics. If there are any questions about this, feel free to ask. --Sbluen (talk) 01:27, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
Modification to Regional Spelling
editIn Canada it should be "mould", not "mold", so I made the change to the beginning to the article. Any government of Canada article you see online uses the spelling "mould" so I think it is fair enough that it should be stated that mould is the spelling for UK, NZ, AU, and CA. That, and growing up, it was always "mould." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.215.87.30 (talk) 05:07, 13 April 2014 (UTC)
I would go further and say that, since it seems only the US spells mold as 'mold', the article should be entitled 'mould' otherwise it runs the risk of appearing US focused and not globally focused. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:67c:10ec:52ca:8000::997 (talk • contribs)
- Thanks for the suggestion, but the practice at Wikipedia is to avoid changing established spellings except in certain circumstances, as described at MOS:RETAIN. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 11:28, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
- @24.215.87.30 The guideline says to retain the US only spelling but I think there is an argument that an article that begins with alternate spellings and lists numerous countries that spell it differently to the title warrants an exception. 2001:8003:20AA:1800:501F:70A7:D3A6:67E3 (talk) 11:25, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
Definition of Mold
editThe current definition is very imprecise and only describes what a lay-person might observe when seeing food beginning to decay. The presence of Hyphae, for example, is a characteristic of all fungi. Whilst this may not be of critical importance here - we can after all have articles about every-day things - it becomes more significant when the term is used elsewhere as in Medicinal molds. In the latter case, this generates a very substantial and very unclear overlap with Medicinal mushrooms. This is a mess that urgently needs resolution. What would be a good start is a clear statement identifying which Phyla are considered to encompass the Molds from which it would be possible to identify all the rest. These won't of course be "Mushrooms" (again a non-taxonomic term) because there will be many ascomycetes and a whole range of fungi not producing classical mushroom or toadstool spore bodies. I haven't the mycological knowledge or skill to sort these out, but I hope that there is an editor out there who can point this article in the right direction. Velella Velella Talk 20:18, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
- Not all fungi have hyphae – yeasts do not, which is what distinguishes them from molds. I don't think a phylogenetic approach will work as molds, like mushrooms, are a non-taxonomic (polyphyletic) group. But I see you're right about the current definition. I remember hearing that molds were filamentous fungi that lacked macroscopic fruiting bodies, but I don't have a reference for that, and in any case it's clearly an imperfect definition as Aspergillus nidulans, Hypocrea jecorina, and surely many other important molds would fail it. It might be that there is no authoritative definition out there as "mold" is, like "worm", a non-technical word that has been used since human's understanding of biology was rudimentary.
- I see what you mean about Medicinal mushrooms and Medicinal molds. Perhaps they should just be merged into a new "Medicinal fungi" article? That would eliminate a lot of overlap, as well as provide a sensible home for the section on yeasts, currently out-of-place in Medicinal molds. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 23:38, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
Should section have been deleted?
editI added what I thought is a good section to the mold article. It was about the use of mold in art. Here is the text of what I added, except I didn't place the "Citation needed" notes: "Various artists have used molds in artistic fashion. Daniele Del Nero creates creepy, decaying architectural models of houses that are mold-covered. Antoine Bridier-Nahmias deliberately grows molds in Petri dishes that grows symmetrically and with somewhat attractive colors, and places photos on the blog Magical Contamination.[citation needed]" However, another user deleted the section, mentioning lack of notability. It may be that the particular artists I mention are not notable, but it seems that the concept of using mold in art is notable and germane to the article, and that mentioning particular artists fleshes out the concept. What does the community think? Should the section be re-instated?69.230.179.59 (talk) 16:49, 10 May 2015 (UTC)
External links modified
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Assessment comment
editThe comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Mold/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
There should be a section on the three divisions of mold -- summary of the differences in terms of taxonomy, reproduction, etc. Then the specific information (applications and environments) should be moved to the proper division's article. This should be a page for broad statements about mold and the division's articles should be for the specifics.
A brief section on common/famous molds containing redirects to the famous mold's article could also come in handy(example penicillin). 199.74.90.145 18:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC) |
Last edited at 18:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 00:19, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
External links modified (February 2018)
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mold vs mould for Canada
editI live in Canada, I spell it as mold, and so does everyone else I know. Maybe people also say mould, but it should be put as both. Alex of Canada (talk) 01:30, 14 October 2018 (UTC)
- @Alex of Canada I fully agree and think the article should be renamed to Mould as it is the most common spelling. The first part of the article even lists anglosphere countries that use the mould spelling and they are both more numerous in numbers and population. 2001:8003:20AA:1800:501F:70A7:D3A6:67E3 (talk) 11:21, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
Move discussion in progress
editThere is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Mold (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:31, 14 April 2020 (UTC)
Basic questions regarding the existence of mold
editThese are questions that I was hoping I could find answers to on the wiki:
Is mold a living organism?
What is the lifespan or timeframe for a particular molds' existence?
Where does mold come from; how does it originate?
Is mold mutually exclusive to the molecular/cellular structure it forms on or is it always present in some form or another?
--Ball4376 (talk) 18:17, 15 April 2020 (UTC)
Move discussion in progress
editThere is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Mold which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 21:32, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
Move discussion in progress
editThere is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Mold (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 05:02, 25 April 2020 (UTC)
I want to add a text.
editThey do extracellular digestion. 103.80.172.165 (talk) 12:50, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
Food Production: oncom
editThe Food Production section says Neurospora sitophila is used to produce oncom, but the oncom page says it is Neurospora intermedia. The Neurospora sitophila page also does not mention oncom. I think this is a mistake?
— Dazmax (talk) 19:46, 6 September 2024 (UTC)