blue mold

American  

noun

1. Also called green mold.  any fungus of the genus Penicillium, which forms a bluish-green, furry coating on foodstuffs inoculated by its spores.

2. Plant Pathology.

   1. a disease of plants, characterized by necrosis of leaves or fruit and the growth of bluish or grayish mold on affected parts, caused by any of several fungi, as of the genus Penicillium or Peronospora tabacina.

   2. downy mildew.

---

Etymology

Origin of blue mold

First recorded in 1655–65

Example Sentences

He eventually found what he was looking for: a strain of penicillium, or blue mold, that, in chickens, reduced levels of an enzyme that cells need to make LDL cholesterol.

From New York Times • Jun. 12, 2024

Blue cheese should also be stored away from other cheeses, because its blue mold has a tendency to travel.

From Washington Post • Sep. 8, 2021

Use a slotted spoon or small strainer to skim any undesired bits of blue mold from the cream sauce and discard them.

From Salon • Sep. 1, 2019

Overlooked things remain: cutlery on the kitchen, a loaf in the bread bin now a cube of blue mold, newspapers and coal under the stairs, calendars on the wall, permanently stalled at May 15, 1940.

From The Verge • Mar. 31, 2018

Bread also sometimes has this blue mold; at other times bread has a black mold, and yet again a pink or a yellow mold.

From Agriculture for Beginners Revised Edition by Burkett, Charles William