A rapid growing (2-5 days) culture of fluffy blue-green colo…
A rapid growing (2-5 days) culture of fluffy blue-green colonies from a respiratory specimen obtained from an immunocompromised ICU patient showed septate hyaline hyphae with many conidiophores. The tips of the conidiophores expand into large dome-shaped vesicles with bottle-shaped phialides covering the upper half or two-thirds of its surface. Long chains of conidia are present at the ends of the phialides. At the base of the conidiophore, a “foot cell” is seen attaching the conidiophore to the septate hyphae. The most likely organism is: