Rhizopus as a saprobiont
Rhizopus is a fungus which is commonly found growing on bread
Picture from http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/biology/plant_bio/lab13.FUNGI.html
Picture from www.monkeytime.com/sciencemaster/ galleries/micro/09.php
Fungi are characterized by the production of a mycelium - a network of thin hyphae which are able to spread across a solid (or through a liquid) medium.
Picture taken from www.uwinnipeg.ca/~simmons/rhizop1.htm
Picture taken from plantbio.berkeley.edu/ ~taylor/intro.html
The mycelium enables the fungus to quickly fill the space available efficiently absorbing nutrients across its wall
Nutrient digestion is by secretion of extracellular enzymes (carbohydrases, proteases and lipases)
When the nutrients available locally are becoming exhausted the fungus is able to spread to new, distant areas by the production of aerial sporangiophores each topped with a sporangium (which release spores onto the wind)