(pl. cultures)
Terms discussed: axenic, monoculture (pl. monocultures)
Culture, in a mycological context, refers to the deliberate cultivation of fungi by humans (or, sometimes, by ants or termites). Axenic or sterile culture refers to growing a fungus on an artificial medium under laboratory conditions that eliminate all other living things from the medium.
Back to top
Monoculture is occasionally used in this sense, but it is usually used nowadays to refer to a situation in nature where one organism has completely taken over an area to the exclusion of all organisms of the same type - - a tree that has crowded out all other types of tree in a given area, or a fungus that has crowded out all other fungi.
Back to top