Epidermophyton floccosum, wet prep.

The person who was teaching me mycology had an incredible accent and for the longest time I thought she was telling me to look for “puddle shaped macroconidia”. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why anyone would describe anything as puddle shaped. It wasn’t until the end that I realized she was saying paddle shaped. Oops. They remain “puddles” in my mind though.

Epidermophyton floccosum is one of the dermatophytes, fungi that cause superficial infections of hair, skin, and nails. They generally aren’t a big deal, but there’s a lot of money in antifungals because man, do people hate dandruff and athlete’s foot.