Chaetomium elatum is a very common and widely distributed saprotrophic fungus of the Chaetomiaceae family of molds which has been found to grow on many different substances all over the world.

[3][4] In 1818, when observing the dead leaves of Typha and Sparganium in Germany, Kunze recognized a new fungus that looked like C. globosum but was darker in pigmentation, and after characterizing it named it Ch.

[12] Under certain growth conditions, colonies of some strains of C. elatum may develop coloured guttation droplets of liquid on their surfaces whose function and composition are unknown.

[3][4] Terminal hairs are extremely coarse, branched at right to straight angles, have irregular projections, blunt spines, and dwindle off to thin translucent tips.

[3][4][13] Lateral hairs are thin, long, unbranched, coarsely roughened by irregular projections and dwindle into translucent smooth tips that are vaguely separate.

[3][4] The species has been found in many areas of the United States, Canada, England, France, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Scotland, the Galapagos Islands and many other localities.

[3][4] It is the most common species of fungi that grows on damp rotting straw,[6] but has also been found and isolated from a variety of materials like rope, burlap, wood, paper, cellulose products, animal dung, seeds, barrel hoops, old brooms, Hordeum vulgare L, Triticum aestivum and the dead leaves of Typha and Sparganium.

[20] Azaphilones have antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, cytotoxic, nematicidal and anti-inflammatory properties,[21] and the three metabolized by C. elatum have also been found to inhibit Caspase 3 which is involved in cell death.

[24] Nnanoparticles harvested from crude extracts of the C. elatum exhibit antimicrobial activity against Magnaporthe grisea, the plant pathogen that causes rice blast disease.