Lactic acid bacteria in four samples of sour dough sponges were studied quantitatively and qualitatively. In each sponge, there were one or two species of the genus Lactobacillus: L. reuteri and L. curvatus in San Francisco sour dough sponge, L. brevis and L. hilgardii in panettone sour dough sponge produced in Italy, L. sanfrancisco from a rye sour dough sponge produced in Germany, and L. casei and L. curvatus from a rye sour dough sponge produced in Switzerland. For all isolates except the L. reuteri strains oleic acid, a component of the Tween 80 added to the medium, was essential for growth. It was of interest that lactobacilli requiring oleic acid were the predominant flora of lactic acid bacteria in the microbial environment of sour dough sponges.