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CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNGI: SPORES

In addition to being interested in the kind of fruiting bodies produced by plant pathogenic fungi, diagnosticians are also very interested in the types of SPORES that are produced in these fruiting bodies. Fungal spores can be thought of as the "seeds" of the fungus, although spores are much less complex that true seeds.

Fungal spores come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like these spores of the fungus Fusarium, are multi-cellular (have more than one cell) and are colorless. The canoe or banana shape of these cells is also characteristic of this particular fungus.

Often I refer to Fusarium as the "Cheshire cat" fungus, because the spores remind me of the Cheshire cat's grin from "Alice in Wonderland".